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illustrent  la  mdthode. 


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HISTORY 


OF   THE 


NORTHERN     PACIFIC 


RAILROAD 


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BY 


EUGENE     V.     SMALL  EY 


NEW  YORK 

G.     P.     PUTNAM'S     SONS 

27  AND  29  West  23d  St. 

1883 


/)  Si' J' 


6357;^ 


Copyright,  1883, 
Bv  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS. 


PREFACE 


When  the  project  of  a  railroad  across  the  American 
Continent  was  first  broached,  and  for  many  years  after- 
ward, the  northern  route,  by  way  of  the  valleys  of 
the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia  rivers,  was  the  only  one 
thought  of.  This  was  the  route  explored  by  Lewis  and 
Clarke  in  the  first  decade  of  the  century.  It  was  known 
to  be  a  route  through  valleys  and  over  plains  for  nearly 
its  entire  distance ;  it  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountain 
barriers  at  low  altitudes  ;  it  approached  the  Pacific  by 
way  of  the  greatest  river  of  the  western  coast ;  at  its 
farthest  limit  lay  the  most  capacious  and  beautiful  deep- 
water  tidal  estuary  to  be  found  on  the  continent.  It 
avoided  the  deserts  lying  further  south,  and  was  believed 
to  traverse  the  only  continuously  habitable  belt  of  coun- 
try stretching  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
Long  before  the  epoch  of  rail  transportation  this  route 
had  been  explored  for  military  and  commercial  purposes 
by  the  United  States  Government.  Very  soon  after  the 
railway  system  was  introduced  in  the  United  States — in- 
deed as  early  as  1 83 5 — it  was  advocated  by  Dr.  Barlow. 
Between  1845  ^"<i  ^849  it  was  pressed  upon  the  attention 
of  Congress  and  State  Legislatures  by  the  earnest,  per- 
sistent and  self-sacrificing  efforts  of  Asa  Whitney.  The 
ideas  of  Whitney  were  taken  up  in  1852  by  one  of  the 
ablest  of  the  world's  great  engineers,  Edwin  F.  Johnson, 
and  given  practical  form  and  value  by  the  aid  of  his  genius 
and  technical  skill.  All  this  happened  before  any  defi- 
nite  business  plan   had   been   formed  for  building   the 


IV 


PREFACE. 


road,  and  much  of  it  long  before  any  other  route  was 
discussed. 

The  acquisition  of  territory  from  Mexico,  following 
the  war  of  1846-8,  the  gold  discoveries  in  California  and 
the  rush  of  population  to  that  region,  and  later  certain 
important  political  considerations  resulting  from  the  war 
of  the  Rebellion,  caused  the  support  of  the  government 
to  be  given  to  the  middle  route.  Thus  the  first  railroad 
completed  to  the  Pacific  terminated  at  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco,  instead  of  at  Puget  Sound  or  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River.  The  northern  route  was  long  neglected. 
Although  a  grant  of  land  was  made  in  its  behalf  two  years 
after  the  two  companies  were  chartered  to  build  the  mid- 
dle line,  one  transcontinental  highway  appeared  to  be 
sufficient  for  the  time;  and  the  one  which  was  supported 
with  heavy  subsidies  of  government  bonds,  and  large 
land  grants,  and  ran  to  the  romantic  shores  of  the 
Golden  State,  easily  secured  and  monopolized  public 
interest  and  confidence.  The  northern  project  languished 
for  want  of  support,  and  more  than  once  came  near 
being  abandoned  in  despair  by  its  few  earnest  advo- 
cates. After  capital  had  finally  been  secured  to  begin 
work  upon  it,  and  its  advantages  had  been  fairly  set 
before  the  public,  the  enterprise  had  to  encounter 
fresh  vicissitiidcs.  It  was  overwhelmed  in  the  financial 
crash  of  1873,  and  struggled  for  many  years  after  being 
rescued  from  bankruptcy  to  merely  hold  the  unfinished 
lines  it  had  built.  Before  it  could  regain  the  confidence 
of  capital  and  push  forward'  to  a  connection  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains  its  widely  separated  "ends  of  track" 
a  second  Pacific  road  had  been  opened  by  the  South- 
ern route,  built  by  California  capitalists  with  wealth 
acquired  from  the  generosity  of  the  government  toward 
the  first  line. 

Thus  the   Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  though  the  first 


projectc 
lust  to 
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sight  of 
claiming 
the  best 
A  hi. 
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history 
the  wes 
treat    tl 
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for  so  1 
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for  the 
destine! 

NewY 


PREFACE. 


projected  of  three  great  transcontinental  lines,  i;'.  the 
last  to  be  completed.  Yet  time  has  justified  the  wis- 
dom of  Thomas  Jefferson  in  causing  the  route  it  fol- 
lows to  be  explored  as  the  best  natural  highway  for  com- 
merce from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  justified,  too,  the  fore- 
sight of  Whitney  and  the  engineering  skill  of  Johnson  in 
claiming  in  advance  of  its  actual  survey  that  it  offered 
the  best  line  for  railroad  construction  and  traffic. 

A  history  of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise  should 
be  something  more  than  an  account  of  the  ciTorts 
of  adventurous  capitalists  and  energetic  railway 
builders  to  open  a  great  transportation  line  across  the 
continent.  It  should  be,  in  its  beginning  at  least,  the 
history  of  a  national  movement  to  find  an  outlet  to 
the  western  sea.  In  this  spirit  I  have  endeavored  to 
treat  the  subject.  No  other  railroad  enterprise  ever 
enlisted  among  its  stockholders  so  numerous  and 
widely  scattered  a  constituency  ;  no  other  ever  attracted 
for  so  long  a  period  so  large  a  share  of  public  atten- 
tion ;  no  other  of  considerable  magnitude  ever  passed 
successfully  through  such  vicissitudes  and  perils ;  no 
other  ever  developed  so  vast  an  area  of  country  adapted 
for  the  uses  of  civilized  man,  and  I  believe  no  other  is 
destined  to  reap  such  great  and  lasting  prosperity. 

E.  V.  S. 

New  York,  August,  1883. 


Who  Fii 
Reclis; 
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Travel 
Red  r 
Expl 
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Succes 


D 

Tradition 
covery- 
Discovi 
River- 
— The 
Discovi 
Named 


Thomas  Je 
Attemp 
for  an  1 
The  Ex 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

HISTORICAL. 

t 

"HAPTER  I. 

EARLY   KXPLORATIONS   IN   THE   NORTHWFST. 

Who  First  Reached  the  Mead  of  Lake  Superior — Giosel'  and 
Redisson — Daniel  Greysolon  Dii  Lulh — Meeting  with  Father  ilenne- 
j)in — Captain  Jean  Du  Luth  and  his  Trading  Post — liaron  Lahontin's 
Travels — Opening  of  the  F'ur  Trad'^ — Veranderie"'  *■  ttlcmeiit  on 
Red  River — Jonathan  Carver's  Expedition — Ale.nnder  Mackv-n/ic's 
Exp!  'IS — Tlie  Search  for  the  Sources  of  the  Mibsiss!pp  -Ex- 
peditions of  Long  and  Pike — Attempt  of  General  Cass — .  ,,iioi  Iciaft's 
Success 

CHAPTER  IL 

DISCOVERY   OF    THE   C0LI;MIUA    RIVER    AND   PUGET    SOUND. 


Tradition  of  the  River  of  the  West — Fictitious  Spanish  Claim  of  Dis- 
covery— Captain  Gray  and  the  Ship  Columbia — Captain  Kendrick's 
Discovery — Vancouver's  Mistake — Gray  Sails  into  the  Columbia 
River— His  Logbook  Entry — Expedition  of  the  British  Brig  Chatham 
— The  Tale  of  the  Greek  Pilot  Juan  de  Fuca — De  Fonte's  Pretended 
Discoveries — Vancouver's  Explorations — Puget  Sound  Mapped  and 
Named — Voyages  of  Lopez  de  Haro  and  Elisa 12 


i: 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    LEWIS   AND    CLARKE  EXPEDITION. 


Thomas  Jefferson's  Efforts  to  Open  a  Route  to  the  Pacific — Ledyard's 
Attempt  Baffled — Captain  Lewis'  First  Project — Congress  Provides 
for  an  Exploration — Character  of  Lewis — Captain  William  Clarke — 
The  Expedition  Organized — Its  Route,  Adventures,  and   Arrival  at 


VUl 


CONTENTS. 


the  Koutli  of  the  Columbia  -The  Return  Journey — Great  Interest 

in  the  Results  of  the  Expedition 20 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FUR  TRADERS,    TRAPPERS   ANU   MISSIONARIES. 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company — The  Northwest  Fur  Company — Annual 
Councils  at  the  Grand  Portage — The  Mackinac  Company — John 
Jacob  Astor's  Enterprise — Founding  of  Astoria — A  Perilous  March 
Across  the  Continent — Hudson's  Bay  Company  Posts  and  Trails — 
Captain  Bonneville'5  Expedition — Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth's  Undertak- 
ing— The  American  Flag  again  Planted  in  Oregon — Bonneville's 
Two  Journeys  to  the  Columbia — Rev.  Samuel  Parker's  Travels — 
His  Zeal  for  Converting  the  Indians — lii:;  Prediction  of  a  Pacific 
Railroad— Comments  of  the  Knickerbocker  Magaiine 33 


CHAPTER  V. 

MARCUS   whitman's   HEROIC    RIDR, 

Dr.  Whitman's  and  Rev.  H.  H,  Spalding  go  to  Oregon  with  their 
Wives — Schemes  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  to  Secure  Oregon 
for  Great  Britain — Whitman's  Daring  Resolution — He  Starts  with 
A.  L.  Lovejoy  for  Washington — Perilous  Winter  Journey  across 
the  Mountains  and  Plains — Whitman's  Appearance  at  the  State 
Department — Oregon  .Saved  to  the  United  States — Whitman  Leads 
the  Missouri  Emigration — His  Tragic  Death 46 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE   FIRST    PACIFIC    RAILROAD    ADVOCATE. 


Early  Arguments  in  Favor  of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  Coast — Dr. 
Samuel  Bancroft  Barlow's  Newspaper  Articles — A  Scheme  for  a 
Railroad  from  New  York  to  the  Mouth  of  the  Columbia — Estimated 
Cost — The  (jovernment  Urged  to  Undertake  the  Work — Effect  on 
East  India  Trade 5t 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  VII. 


IX 


ASA   WHITNEY  S   TROJECT. 


PAGE 


Whitney's  Early  Career — He  Ascends  tlie  Missouri — Study  of  a  Short 
Route  to  China — His  Scheme  for  a  Railroad  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  the  Mouth  of  the  Columbia — Efforts  in  Washington — Favorable 
Resolutions  Secured  from  State  Legislatures — Whitney  Mobbed 
in  New  York — A  Friendly  Reception  in  Philadelphia — Whitney's 
Bill  Defeated — Another  Unsuccessful  Effort  in  1849 — Whitney  dies 
Poor — The  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  Conventions  of  1S49 — George 
Wilkes'  Project — Plans  of  J.  Loughborough  and  Dr.  Hartwell 
Carver 57 


33 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

EDWIN'  F.  Johnson's  efforts. 

An  Eminent  Engineer  Takes  up  the  Pacific  Railway  Project — Edwin 
F.  Johnson's  Career — Early  Advocacy  of  Railroad  Transportation — 
Plan  for  Railroad  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Mississippi — Chief 
Engineer  of  the  Erie  Railway — At  Work  in  Wisconsin— Articles 
in  the  Railroad  Journal — Arguments  in  Favor  of  the  Northern 
Route — Robert  J.  Walker  and  Jefferson  Davis — Schemes  of  South- 
ern Politicians — Johnson's  Letters  Republished — His  Map  and 
Profile 69 


46 


CHAPTER  IX. 


IHE  GOVERNMENT  SURVEYS. 


51 


Condition  of  Public  Sentiment — Sectional  Jealousy — Effect  of  the 
California  Gold  Discoveries — General  Agreement  that  a  Railway 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  Must  Be  Built — The  Question  of  Routes — 
Five  Lines  Surveyed — Jefferson  Davis  Favors  the  Most  Southern  — 
Governor  Stevens'  Survey  of  the  Northern  Route — Thoroughness 
of  his  Work — Advantages  of  the  Northern  Route  Fully  Demon- 
strated— Stevens'  Report — His  Writings  and  Public  Addresses  in 
Favor  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Raiiro.id  Project — His  Death  on  the 
Battle-field 77 


X 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  X. 


FUTILE  MOVEMENTS   IN   CONGRESS. 


Last  of  Asa  Whitney's  Project — California's  Demand — The  Northern 
Route  almost  Lost  Sight  of — VVm.  H.  Seward's  Bill — Henry  S.  Foote's 
Southern  Pacific  Bill — Sectional  Strife  over  the  Question  of  Routes — 
The  Bill  of  1855  for  Three  Lines  to  the  Pacific — Weller's  Subsidy 
and  Land  Grant  Bill  of  1856 — President  Buchanan's  Advocacy — A 
New  Bill  for  a  Single  Central  Line  Changed  to  one  for  Three  Lines, 
and  Defeated  in  1859 — Curtis's  Single  Route  Bill  of  i860 — The  pro- 
totype of  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Legislation — The 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  named  and  Recognized  by  Congress  in 
1861 — A  Northern  Pacific  Company  Organized  in  Washington 
Territory 


88 


CHAPTER  XL 

JOSIAH    PERHAM'S  people's    PACIFIC   RAILROAD. 

Perham's  Business  Career — The  "  Father"  of  the  Cheap  Excursion  Sys- 
tem— Visions  of  a  Railroad  to  the  Pacific — A  Current  Misapprehen- 
sion Corrected — Perham  Not  Originally  in  Favor  of  the  Northern 
Route — The  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company — Failure  to  Get  a 
Charter  in  Massachusetts — Perham's  Speech  to  a  Boston  Meeting — 
The  Company  Chartered  by  the  Maine  Legislature — Perham's  Ap- 
peals to  Congress  for  Aid — His  Impracticable  Plan  of  Raising  Money 
by  Small  Stock  Subscriptions 97 


CHAPTER  Xn. 


THE   UNION    AND    CENTRAL    PACIFIC   CHARTER. 

Five  Practicable  Routes  to  the  Pacific — Congress  Prefers  the  Middle 
Route — Political  Considerations — Threats  of  the  Southern  Element 
in  California — The  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Bill — Per- 
ham's Project  left  out — Fruitless  E^ffort  in  the  Senate  for  the  North- 
ern Route — Passage  of  tl.o  Bill — Its  Generous  Conditions — Profits  of 
Construction — The  Route  Adopted  Follows  the  Emigrant  Trail — 
Amendment  of  the  Charter  in  1864 — Condition  of  the  Northern 
Belt  in  i86a lofi 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


passai;e  of  the  charter  act. 


PACE 


I'erham  Transfers  his  Efforts  to  the  Northern  Project — Thaddeus  Stevens 
Supports  the  People's  Pacific  Scheme — Defeat  of  the  Bill  in  the 
Mouse — A  New  Bill  framed  Creating  the  Northern  Pacific  Com- 
pany— It  Passes  the  House  and  Senate,  and  is  Approved  by  Presi- 
dent Lincoln — Its  Principal  Provisions — Perham's  Impracticable 
Stock  Subscription  Plan — The  Company  Prohibited  to  Issue  Bonds 
or  Mortgage  the  Road — A  Double  Land  Grant,  but  no  other  Gov- 
ernment Aid 113 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

ORCANIZINC.    THE   COMPANY. 

A  Board  of  Commissioners — The  Company  a  New  England  Concern — 
P'irst  Meeting  of  the  Board — Perham's  Speech — His  Estimate  of  the 
Cost  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Road — Exaggerated  Notions  as  to  the 
Value  of  the  Land  Grant — Subscription  Books  Opened — The  Origi- 
nal Stockholders — First  Board  of  Directors — Officers  Elected 119 

CHAPTER    XV. 

A   TRANSFER   OF  THE    FRANCHISE. 


Mission  of  Colonel  W.  S.  Rowland  and  Governor  Frank  Fuller  to  Bos- 
ton— Fuller's  Speech  Before  the  Board  of  Trade — Hamilton  A, 
Hill's  Interest — Report  of  a  Committee  Indorsing  the  Northern 
Pacific  Enterprise — An  International  Line  Proposed — Co-operation 
of  the  Railroads  from  Boston  to  Canada  Secured — Perham  at  llie 
End  of  His  Resources — Transfer  of  the  Charter — A  New  Organiza- 
tion Formed — Congress  Looked  to  for  Means  to  Build  the  Road. , , 


125 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


APPEALS   TO    CONGRESS. 

J.  Gregory  Smith's  Early  Career — His  Plan  for  Co-operation  with  tlie 
Canada  Pacific  Company — Movement  for  an  Extension  of  Time — 
Opposition  in  Congress  to  all  Land  Grant  Railroads — Thaddeus 
Stevens'  Assistance — Two  More  Years  Allowed  for  Beginning  Work 
— Effort  to  Secure  Government  Aid — A  Discouraging  Outlook — A 


Xit 


CONTENTS. 


PACE 

Guaranty  of  Interest  on  Stock  Asked — Defeat  of  the  Guaranty  Bill  in 
the  House — Attempt  to  Revive  the  Bill  in  the  Senate — An  Indirect 
Defeat  by  a  Majority  of  One — A  Blessing  in  Disguise 133 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE  ORIGtNAL    INTERESTS    AGREEMENT. 

Weakness  of  the  Northern  Pacific  as  a  purely  New  England  Enterprise 
— Governor  Smith's  Plan  to  Nationalize  the  Company — A  Railroad 
Syndicate  Proposed — William  B.  Ogden  Agrees  to  Join  it — The 
Original  Interests  Agreement  Formed — Twelve  Shares  Provided  for 
— Edwin  F,  Johnson  Appointed  Chief  Engineer — Surveys  Ordered.    141 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 


SURVEVINC.  THE  LINE. 

Chief  Engineer  Johnson's  First  Report — A  Preliminary  Location  Made 
in  1867 — First  Estimates  of  Cost — Two  Surveys  Across  Minnesota — 
Choice  of  a  Lake  Harbor — Routes  Across  the  Cascade  Mountains 
Examined — W.  Milnor  Roberts'  Reconnoissance  in  1869 — Gov.  Mar- 
shall's Expedition  to  the  Upper  Missouri — The  Rocky  Mountain 
Passes — Advantages  of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  Route  over  the  Clearwater 
Route — A  Final  Survey  of  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains 148 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CHARTER. 


Weary  Waiting  upon  Congress — Various  Schemes  for  Obtaining  Govern- 
ment Aid — Opposition  to  the  Land  Grant  and  Subsidy  System — The 
Northern  Pacific  Company  goes  to  Sleep  for  Two  Years — No  Board 
Meetings  from  i863  to  iSyo^Congress  Extends  the  Time  for  Begin- 
ning Work  on  the  Road,  and  for  Completing  it — A  Wise  Change  of 
Policy — Congress  Authorizes  the  Issue  of  Bonds — Branch  from  Port- 
land to  Puget  Sound  Authorized 159 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  JAY   COOKE  CONTRACT. 

The  lianking  House  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  —  Mr.  Cooke's  Character  as  a 
Financier — His  Contract  with  the  Northern    Pacific  Company — A 


CONTENTS. 


Xill 


lin 

rect 


133 


rise 
3a  d 
rhe 
for 
:d.    141 


.de 


Hard  Bargain — Five  Millions  Furnished  to  Begin  Construction  in 
1870 — A  Town  Site  Company  Formed— A  New  Bill  Passes  Con- 
;;ress  Authorizing  the  Mortgaging  of  the  Road  and  Land  Grant — The 
Columbia  River  Line  Made  the  Main  Line  to  Puget  Sound — A 
ISrisk  Contest  in  both  Houses — Jay  Cooke's  Plan  for  a  P'oreign  Loan 
— The  Bonds  Finally  Offered  to  the  American  Public — Defects  of 
the  Financial  Scheme i(')3 


CHAPTER  XXL 

SALE  OK  THE  7-30  nONDS. 

Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  Efforts  to  Popularize  the  7-30  Loan — Extensive  and 
Liljeral  Advertising — Favorable  Opinions  from  Prominent  Public 
Men  — Favorable  Conditions  for  Selling  the  Bonds — Cooke's  Branch 
House  in  London — Tl»e  Bonds  Largely  Bought  by  People  of  Mod- 
erate Means — Truthfulness  of  Jay  Cooke's  Published  Statements 
About  the  Northern  Pacific  Bell — Extracts  from  his  Pamphlets 171 


ms 
ir- 
lin 
er 


148 


CHAPTER  XXIL 

CONDITION  OF  THE  NORTHWEST  IN  1S7O.  . 

Northern  Minnesota  a  Wilderness — No  Farms  in  the  Red  River  Valley 
— The  Country  of  the  Savage  Sioux — The  Mining  Settlements  in 
Central  Montana — Another  Uninhabited  Region  Beyond — The  Vig- 
orous Settlements  of  Oregon  and  Puget  Sound — Their  Aid  to  the 
Railroad  Enterprise — The  Obstacles  to  be  Surmounted — 2,000  Miles 
of  Railway  to  be  Built  through  a  Wilderness 178; 


bf 

t- 


CHAPTER   XXIIL 


BUILDING    THE    KOAD. 


Construction  Work  begun  in  1870 — Surveys  in  Minnesota — A  Com- 
mittee sent  to  the  Pacific  Coast — Purchase  of  St.  Paul  and  Pacific 
Stock — Dululh  and  Superior — Completion  of  the  Minnesota  Division 
— Work  begun  on  the  Line  from  the  Columbia  River  to  Puget 
Sound — Controlling  Interest  in  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company 
Bought— Scarcity  of  Funds  in  1872— President  Smith  Resigns — A 
Review  of  his  Administration 185 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  GENERAL  CASS, 


PAGB 


A  Parenthesis  in  the  Affairs  of  the  Company — General  Cass's  Education 
and  Career  in  the  Army,  and  in  Business — He  IJuilds  the  First  Iron 
Bridge  in  the  Country — Establishes  the  Adams  Express  Company — 
President  of  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Chicago  Railroad — 
Joins  the  Smitli  Syndicate  to  Acquire  the  Northern  Pacific  Franchise 
— Selecting  a  Site  for  a  Terminal  City  on  Pugel  Sound — Why 
Tacoma  was  Preferred — A  Commission  Ajipointef'.  to  Settle  the 
Question — The  Tacoma  Land  Company — General  Cass's  Speech  to 
the  Board — Ilis  Investment  of  Stock  in  Red  River  Valley  Lands — 
The  Cass-Cheney  Farms — Features  of  his  Administration lyo 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


THE   TANIC    OK    1873. 


An  Unexpected  Disaster — Suspension  of  the  House  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. — 
The  Panic  and  its  Results — Closingof  the  Stock  Exchange^ — -Suspen- 
sion of  Banks,  Railroads,  and  Manufacturir.i;  Companies — Numerous 
Failures  in  all  Parts  of  the  Country — Prolonged  Effects  of  the  Panic 
— Serious  Shrinkage  in  Value — Many  Branches  of  Industry  Par- 
alyzed—The Northern  Pacific  Railroad  not  the  Cause  of  the  Failure 
of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  — Mr.  Cooke  Loses  One  Fortune  and  Makes 
Another 


198 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 


REORGANIZATION    CI'-   THE   NORTHERN    I'ACIFIC   COMPANY. 


A  Period  of  Doubt  and  Despondency  in  the  Affairs  of  the  Company — 
Mileage  Completed  at  the  Time  of  the  Panic — A  Road  Through 
V.acant  Spaces — Falling  off  of  Western  Immigration — The  Company 
in  Desperate  Straits — Its  Rescue  by  a  Sagacious  Plan  of  Reorganiza- 
tion— The  Bonds  Converted  into  Preferred  Stock — Bankruptcy  Pro- 
ceedings Begun  by  the  Directors — Judge  Shipman's  Valuable  Assist- 
ance— The  Road  and  Franchise  Sold  to  a  Purchasing  Committee  of 
the  Bondholders 204 


iliii 


CONTENTS. 


XV 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 
CHARLES  n.  Wright's  administration. 

FA(,B 

Charles  B.  Wright  Elected  Pre -ident  in  1874 — His  Early  Career  in  Busi- 
ness and  Kailrond  Management — Chosen  a  Director  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  in  1870 — Chairman  of  the  I'inance  Committee  in  1872,  and 
Vice-President  in  1873 — Financial  Straits  of  the  Company  after  the 
Ke-irganizalion — Making  the  Road  Pay  Expenses — Construction 
Work  Recommenced  in  1875,  on  the  Pacific  Coast — A  Connection 
with  St.  Paul  Secured — Renewed  Activity  in  tlie  Company's  Affairs 
— The  Missouri  Division  Loan — Construction  Begun  West  of  the 
Missouri  River  in  1879 — Mr.  Wright's  Resignation — Complimentary 
Resolutions 2ir 


CHAP'IER    XXVIII. 


RENEVVKD    APPEALS    TO  CONGRESS. 


Unwillingness  of  Capitalists  to  P'urnish  Money  for  Completing  the 
Northern  Pacific  Road — Preferred  Stock  Sells  for  25  to  30^The 
Directors  make  a  Fresh  Appeal  to  Congress  in  1874 — Benj.  F.  Wane's 
Services — A  Bill  Guaranteeing  Interest  on  the  Company's  Bonds — 
A  Hopeless  Effort  from  the  Start — Public  Opinion  Strongly  Opposed 
to  Further  Aid  to  Railroads — Failure  of  the  Bill — Bills  for  an  Exten- 
sion of  Time  Pass  the  Senate  but  Fail  in  the  House — The  Company 
Determines  to  Rest  on  its  Charter  Rights — Validity  of  the  Entire 
Land  Grant  Affirmed  by  Attorney-General  Devens 2lq 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 


PRESIDENCY   OF    FREDERICK   HILLINGS. 


Mr.  Billings'  Birth  and  Education — He  Becomes  a  California  Pioneer  of 
1S49 — A  Lawyer  in  San  Francisco — His  Early  Interest  in  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Project — Declines  a  Nomination  for  Congress — Returns 
to  the  East — Chosen  a  Northern  Pacific  Director  in  1870— Organ- 
izes the  Land  Department — <  hairman  of  the  Executive  Committee — 
Elected  President  in  1879 — ^  General  First  Mortgage  Executed — 
Agreement  with  a  Syndicate  of  Bankers — The  Bismarck  Bridge — St. 
Paul  Terminal  Facilities — General  Offices  and  Brainerd  Shops — Mr. 
Billings' Resignation — Improved  Condition  of  the  Company 226 


XVI 


CONTEiWTS. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

TEMPORARY  I'RESIDENCY   OK   A.    II.    HARNEY, 

PACK 

Mr.  Barney's  Birth  and  Education — Visit  to  Michigan — Early  Interest  in 
Transportation  Problems — Deputy  Collector  of  the  Port  of  Sacketts 
Harbor — The  Patriot  War — Engages  in  the  Commission  and  Ship- 
ping Business  at  Cleveland  and  Buffalo — Organues  the  United  States 
Express  Company — A  Member  of  Several  Railroad  Purchasing  Syn- 
dicates— Director  and  Treasurer  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad — 
His  Connection  with  the  Original  Interests  Agreement — Elected 
President  in  1881  to  Fill  a  Temporary  Vacancy — The  Agreement 
with  the  Crow  Indians 239 


si 


n 


^y 


CHAPTER  XXXL 

HENRY    VILLARD    AS    JOURNALIST   AND    RAILWAY    MANAGER. 

Mr.  Villard's  Birth  and  Education  in  Germany — He  Emigrates  to  the 
United  Slates  at  the  Age  of  18 — Studies  Law  and  Writes  for  the 
German  Papers — Masters  the  English  Language  and  Becomes  a 
Journalist — Goes  to  the  Pike's  Peak  Gold  Mines — His  Career  as  a 
War  Correspondent  from  1861  to  1864 — Secretary  of  the  American 
Social  Science  Association — Visits  to  Eurojic — Returns  to  America 
to  Represent  German  Bondholders  of  Defaulting  Railroads — Re- 
ceiver of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad — President  of  llie  Oregon  and 
California  Railroad — Acquires  Control  of  the  Oregon  Steamship 
Company  and  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company — Proposition  to 
the  Union  Pacific  Company — Organization  of  the  Oregon  Railway 
and  Navigation  Company — Prosecution  of  Mr.  Villard's  General 
Transportation  Plan 245 


CHAPTER   XXXIL 


PRESIDENCY  OK    HENRY    VILLARD. 


Rela'io'is  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  with  the 
Northern  Pacific  — A  Threatened  Conflict  of  Interests — Traffic  Con- 
tract Agreed  Upon — Villard's  Plan  to  Acquire  Control  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific — History  of  the  Blind  Pool — A  Romance  of  Wall  Street 
— Formation  of  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company — Its  Ob- 
jects— A  Legal  Controversy  over  an  Issue  of  Northern  Pacific  Com- 
mon Stock — Henry  Villard  Elected  President  of  the  Northern  Pacific 


CONTENTS. 


XVII 


— Thomaf?  F.  Oakes  Elected  \'icePiesi(lent — Important  Financial 
Aid  Afforded  by  llie  Oregon  and  Transcontinental — IJuilding  of 
JJranch   Lines 261 


CHAPTER  XXXIIl. 


lilOGRArillCAI,  SKETCHES. 


23y 


\V.  Milnor  RobcrLs' Career  as  an  Engineer — His  Early  Connection  with 
Railroads  in  the  United  States — Building  a  Railroad  in  Brazil — 
.Chief  Engineer  of  the  Northern  Pacific — His  Death  in  Brazil — 
Samuel  Wdkeson — His  Career  as  a  Journalist — His  Connection  with 
the  Government  War  Loans — Elected  Secretary  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company — The  Senior  Officer  of  the  Company  in  Length  of 
Service — Col.  (jcorge  Gray — Birth  and  Education  in  Ireland — Col- 
onel of  a  Cavalry  Regiment  in  the  War  for  the  Union — Becomes  At- 
torney and  General  Counsel  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company — His 
Valuable  Services — Thomas  F.  Oakes — A  Practical  Railroad  Man 
from  his  Youtli — His  Connection  with  Railroads  in  Kansas — Man- 
ager of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navijration  Company — Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  Northern  Pacific — Active  Operations  in  Building  the 
Road 277 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


RELATIONS   OF    THK  NORTHERN   I'ACIFIC  WITH   OTHER  COMPANIES. 


The  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad— Purchase  ofa  Half  Inter- 
est in  the  Line  from  Uululh  to  Thomson  Junction — Lease  of  the 
Entire  Road,  with  its  Leased  Lines — Lease  Surrendered — The  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific  Cc  ipany  and  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  First  Divis- 
ion— A  Controlling  Stock  Interest  Acquired  by  the  Northern  Pacific 
— Retransfer  of  the  First  Division — Foreclosure  and  Sale  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific — The  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  Com- 
pany Formed — The  Western  Railroad  Company  of  Minnesota — The 
Northern  Pacific,  Fergus  Falls  and  Black  Hills  Railroad  Company — 
Its  Stock  Purchased  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Company — The  Cassel- 
ton  Branch — The  Little  Falls  and  Dakota  Railroad  Company — 
Other  Branches — Arrangement  with  the  Oregon  and  Transconti- 
nental Company  for  the  Building  of  Brunch  Lines. , , , 293 


fmm 


xvm 


COIVTENTS, 
PART  II. 


.!;! 


THK    NOKTHERN    PACIFIC    COUNTRY. 


1" 


llliii 


I'i! 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 


EASTERN   CITIES   AND   LAKE   TORTS. 


PACE 


A  Defect  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Charter — Lake  Superior  not  the  Proper 
Eastern  Terminus — A  Description  of  tlie  Twin  Cities  of  Minnesota — 
St.  Paul  the  Older  Place — Remarkable  Recent  Growth  of  Minneap- 
olis— Business  of  the  Two  Cities — Picturesque  Appearance  of  St. 
Paul — Minneapolis  and  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony — Northern  Pacific 
Offices  and  'I'erminal  Facilities — The  Bay  of  Superior — Ambition 
of  Both  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  to  Possess  a  Commercial  City 
at  the  Head  of  l.akc  Superior — Superior  and  Duluth — Why  Duluth 
was  Made  the  First  Lake  Terminus  of  the  Northern  Pacific — The 
Strife  About  the  Duluth  Canal  and  Dike — Growth  of  Duluth — Pros- 
pects of  Superior — Ashland  a  Third  Northern  Pacific  Port 309 

CHAPTER    XXXVr. 

NORTHERN    MINNESOTA. 

Extensive  Areas  of  Forest  Land — Towns  North  of  St.  Paul — The  Coun- 
try Between  Lake  Superior  and  Brainerd — A  Wide  Stretch  of 
Wilderness — Great  Value  of  the  Minnesota  Timber  Belt — The  Lake 
and  Park  Region — Innumerable  Lakes  and  Beautiful  Groves — De- 
troit— Fergus  Falls  and  its  Water-power — The  Great  Valley  of  the 
Red  River  of  the  North — The  Land  of  No.  i  Hard  Wheat — Towns 
in  the  Valley — Breckenridge  and  Wahpeton — Fargo  and  Moorhead — 
The  Natural  Grain  Belt  of  the  Continent — Settlement  of  Northern 
Minnesota 321 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

NORTH    DAKOTA. 

Portion  of  Dakota  lying  North  of  the  46th  Parallel — North  Dakota  a 
Vast,  Rich,  Alluvial  Plain— The  Red  River  Valley— The  James, 
Sheyenne  and  Mouse  Rivers — Devil's  Lake — The  Missouri  and  its 
Tributaries — The  Coteaux — Fertile  Regions  West  of  the  Missouri — 
Dakota's  Railroad  System— Chief  Towns  of  North  Dakota— Origin 


CONTENTS. 


XIX 


of  Bismarck  and  Mandan — Climatic  Peculiarities — A  Dakota  Win- 
ter— Prairie  Landscapes — The  Charm  of  Vast  Spaces  and  Wide 
Sweeps  of  Vision — Lignite  Coal  Fields — Singular  Scenery  of  the  Had 
Lands — An  Admirable  Grazing  Country 330 

CHAPTER  XXXVin. 

MONTANA. 

Extent  of  Montana — A  Larger  Area  than  that  of  Great  Britain  and 
Leland — Two  Distinct  Regions — The  Plains  and  the  Mountains — 
Vast  Stretches  of  Treeless  Country  Covered  with  Bunch-Grass — 
Rich  Irrigable  Lands  along  the  Rivers — Chief  Towns  of  Eastern 
Montana — Indian  Reservations — Western  Montana,  its  Mountain 
Ranges  and  Fertile  Valleys — Heavy  Crops  of  Small  Grains — Min- 
ing for  Precious  Metals  still  the  Chief  Industry — Coal  and  Iron 
Deposits — The  Lumber  Business — Principal  Mountain  Towns  — 
Montana's  Climate — Influence  of  the  "Chinook  Wind" — Some 
Peculiarities  of  Climate — Beautiful  and  Varied  Scenery  — A  Land 
of  Wonders  and  Surprises 341 

CHAPTER   XXXIX. 

NORTHERN    IDAHO    AND   WASHINGTON. 

Form  of  Idaho  Territory — Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  and  its  Forest — The 
Grain  and  Pasture  Region  of  Northern  Idaho  and  Eastern  Wash- 
ington— Other  Arable  Belts — The  Big  Bend  and  Yakima  Country — 
Principal  Towns — Western  Washington — A  Region  of  High  Mount- 
ains, Dense  F'orests,  and  Deep  Inlets  of  the  Sea — Magnificent  Snow 
Peaks — The  Lumber  Industry — Farming  Districts  in  Narrow  Val- 
leys— Extensive  Beds  of  Coal — Paget  Sound  Towns — The  Columbia 
K.iver  Valley — Climatic  Conditions 351 


CHAPTER    XL. 

OREfiON. 

Oregon  not  a  New  Community — A  Large  Part  of  Its  Surface  still  Unoc- 
cupied— The  Donation  Law — Beauty  and  Fertility  of  the  Willr.mctte 
Valley — An  Agricultural  Paradise— The  Umpqua  and  Rogue  River 
Valleys — Character  of  the  Sea  Coast  Region — Coos  and  Vaquina 
Bays — Eastern  Oregon— A  High,  Treeless,  Bunch-Grass  Plain — The 


XX 


CONTENTS. 


Lake  Country  of  Southern  Oregon — The  Umatilla  Wheat  Region — 
<jran(ie  Ronde  and  Wallowa  Valleys — Other  Arable  Valleys — Wool 
Growing  and  Cattle  Raising — Climatic  Peculiarities — Valley  of  the 
Columbia — The  Salmon  Fishing  and  Canning  Industries — Lumber- 
ing and  Mining — Chief  Towns — Oregon  Scenery 361 

CHAPTER    XLI. 

PORTLAND   AND    THE    ITGET    SOUND   PORTS. 

The  Metropolis  of  the  Pacific  Northwest — Portland's  Advantageous  Lo- 
cation— Its  Enterprise  in  Establishing  Transportation  Lines — The 
Railway  System  Centring  in  Portland — A  Weil-Built,  Rich,  and 
Beautiful  City — Its  (Ireat  Staple  Export  of  Wheat — The  Columbia 
River  Bar — Predictions  of  a  Greater  City  on  Paget  Sound — 
Tacoma  the  Legal  Terminus  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Radroad — Its 
Tributary  Coal-Fields  and  Lumber  Interests— Wheat  Shipments 
from  Eastern  Washington — Seattle's  Activity  and  Growth — Its  Im- 
portant Trade  with  the  Smaller  Towns  on  Puget  Sound 370 


iliiJ 


I 


PART   III. 

DESCRIPTION    OF     THE     MAIN     LINE. 

CHAPTER   XLII. 

THE  MINNESOTA,   WISCONSIN  AND   ST,    PAUL   DIVISIONS. 

The  East:  Minnesota  Division — First  Breaking  of  Ground  on  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Line — A  Celebration  of  the  Event — Wheeling  the  First 
Load  of  Earth — Completion  of  the  Road  to  Brainerd  in  1870 — Char- 
acter of  the  Country  Traversed— The  St.  Paul  Division — The  Wis- 
consin Division — The  Brainerd  Shops — The  West  Minnesota  Divi- 
sion— Difficulties  and  Cost  of  Co.istruclion — The  Red  River  Crossing.  381 


iii 


CHAPTER   XLIII. 

THE   DAKOIA    AND   MISSOURI    DIVISIONS. 

Work  Begun  on  the  Dakota  Division  in  1S72 — The  Track  Completed  to 
Jamestown  in  1872  and  to  Bismarck  in  1873 — Building  Across  an  Un- 


CONTENTS. 


XXI 


PAGB 

inhabited  Region — The  Road  Reaches  the  Missouri  River  heforethe 
Panic  of  1873 — ^  Description  of  the  Hismarclt  Uridge — The  Missouri 
Division — Its  iiighest  Summit  2,800  feet  above  the  Sea— A  Tracl< 
Laid  Across  the  Missouri  River  on  the  Ice — Character  of  the  Work 
on  tiie  Division — The  Uad  Lands 388 


CHAPTER    XLIV. 

THE  YELLOWSTONE   AND   MONTANA   DIVISIONS. 

Up  the  Yellowstone  Valley — A  Difficult  Line  to  Build — Tlie  Unstable, 
Crumbling  Bluffs  Undermined  by  the  Action  of  the  River — Dikes 
and  Wing  Dams  Constructed — 34  Miles  of  Rock -cutting — Long 
Tangents  an  !  EasyGrades — Completion  of  the  Yellowstone  Division 
in  1S82 — Tl:  Montana  Division— The  Yellowstone  Bridges — Crossing 
the  Belt  Mountains — The  Bozeman  Pass  and  Tunnel — Difficulties 
Overcome  in  Constructing  the  Tunnel — Sluicing  out  the  Eastern  Ap- 
proach— Early  Surveys — Johnson's  and  Roberts'  Routes — The  De- 
scent of  the  Pass — The  Gallatin  Valley  and  the  Upper  Cailon  of  the 
Missouri — Progress  and  Completion  of  the  Division — The  National 
Park  Branch 398 


CHAPTER    XLV. 


THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  AND   TEND   D  OREILLE   DIVISIONS. 


Across  the  Main  Divide — Fifteen  Passes  Surveyed — Why  the  Mullan 
Pass  was  Selected — A  Description  of  the  Mullan  Tunnel — Unex- 
pected Difficulties  Encountered — Only  Six  Miles  of  Heavy  Grades — 
Contrast  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  Slopes — Pend  d'Oreilie 
Division — Easy  Graties  and  Long  Tangents — The  Snake  River  Bridge 
and  the  long  Pile  Bridges  across  Lake  Pend  d'Oreilie — The  Line 
along  the  Clark's  Fork  River — Serious  Obstacles  to  Construction — 
Dense  Forests,  Precipitous  Mountains,  Deep  Cafions,  and  Clay 
Slides — A  Wild  and  Rugged  Region — Enormous  Powder  Blasts — A 
Phenomenal  Slide  of  Forty  Acres — The  Coriacan  Defile — The 
O'Keefe  and  Marent  Gulch  Trestles— Valley  of  the  Hell  Gate  River.  408 


H 


XXll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 


THE   COLUMBIA    RIVER   LINE   AND    PACIFIC   AND   CASCADE   DIVISIONS. 


<  fi;;i; 


s  • 


i" 


The  Columbia  River  Line  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation 
Company — Its  Relations  to  the  Northern  Pacific  System — A  Roadbed 
Blasted  from  the  Face  of  Precipices — Fifty  Thousand  Pounds  of 
Powder  used  in  a  Single  Blast — Other  Lines  of  the  Oregon  Rail- 
way and  Navigation  System — The  Pacific  Division  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Company — From  Portland  to  Puget  Sound — First  Con- 
struction Operations  on  the  Pacific  Coast  — The  Cascade  Division — 
An  Important  Coal  Road — W,  Milnor  Roberts'  Report  on  Building 
across  the  Cascade  Mountains — Tiie  Seattle  Extension 422 

CHAPTER  XLVIL 

AID   RENDERED   BY   THE   ARMY. 

Hostility  of  the  Indians  along  the  Northern  Pacific  Line — Warlike 
Character  of  the  Sioux — Their  Struggle  for  the  Yellowstone  Val- 
ley— General  Sherman's  Opinion  of  the  Railroad  Enterprise — Valu- 
able Assistance  rendered  by  him  and  his  Subordinate  Officers — Im- 
portant MiUtary  Movements — Protection  given  Surveying  Parties 
and  Construction  Forces — Expeditions  of  1871  and  1872 — Major 
Baker's  Battle  in  the  Yellowstone  Valley — Major  Forsythe's  Expedi- 
tion— The  Campaigns  of  1876  and  1877  against  the  Sioux — Final 
Subjection  oi  the  Indians — The  Pathway  Cleared  for  the  Railroad..  431 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PACE 

Mount  Tacoma  from  Commencement  Bay Frontispiece 

Northern  Pacific  Offices,  St.  Pall 6 

St.  Paul,  Minn 13 

Minneapolis,  Minn 20 

Dulutii,  Minn 33 

Bonanza  Wheat  Farming — Plowing 46 

Bonanza  Wheat  Farming — Seeding 51 

Bonanza  Wheat  Farming — Harrowing 57 

Bonanza  W' heat  Farming — Harvesting 69 

Bismarck  Bridge  over  the  Missouri  River 77 

Buttes  in  Pyramid  Park 85 

Pyramid  Park  Scenery 88 

Fagle  Cliff,  near  Glendive,  Mont 97 

Buffalo  Hunting  in  Eastern  Montana 106 

Current  Ferry  Over  the  Yellowstone  River 1 19 

Big  Horn  River,  Bridge  and  Tunnel 125 

Indian  Camp  on  the  Line  of  the  N.  P.  R.  R 133 

Driving  Cattle  from  the  Range  to  the  Railroad 141 

Gates  of  the  Mountains,  near  Livingston,  Mont 147 

Old  Faithful  Geyser,  National  Park 159 

Giant  Geyser,  National  Park 163 

(Jreat  Falls  o)   the  Yellowstone,  National  Park 171 

Upper  Falls  of  the  Yei.lowstone,  National  Park 177 

Mammoth  Hot  Springs  Terrace,  National  Park 1S5 

Natural  Bridge,  National  Park 190 

Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri  River 198 

Gates  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  ni:ar  Helena,  Mont 204 

Beaver  Hill,  Hell  Gate  (^anon,  near  Missoula,  Mont 211 

Marent  Gulch  Bridge,  Coriacan  Defile  219 

Alice  Falls,  Mont 226 

Cahinet  Gorge,  on  the  Clark's  Fork  River 233 

Lake  Pend  d'Oreille,  Idaho  Territory 241 

Lake  C(i;ur  d'Alene,  Idaho  Territory 245 

Spokane  Falls,  Washington  Territory 253 

Along  the  Cliffs  of  the  Columbia 261 


XXIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Cascapes  of  the  Columbia  River 273 

Multnomah  Falls  on  the  Columbia 277 

Castle  Rock  on  the  Columbia 293 

Cape  Horn  on  the  Columbia 321 

Pillars  of  Hercules  and  Rooster  Rock 32S 

Mount  Hood  from  thh  Columbia  River 341 

Portland.  Oregon 351 

Iron  Mountain,  Cow  Creek  Canon,  Southern  Oregon 361 

Tacoma,  Washington  Territory 388 

Seattle,  Washington  Territory 398 

Distant  View  of  Mount  Tacoma 408 

Glaciers  of  Mount  Tacoma 422 

Glaciers  of  Mount  Tacoma 431 

MAPS. 

Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  Minn 310 

Lake  Superior  Termini  of  Northern  Pacific  Railroad •315 

Portland,  Oregon 370 

PuGET  Sound  Ports  and  their  Railway  Connections 375 

Profile  of  the  N.  P.  R.  R.  from  St.  Paul  and  Lake  Superior  to 

Puget  Sound 381 


PAGE 

•••  273 

•■•  277 

■  •  •.  293 

• • •  321 

• ..  328 

•••  341 

•••  351 

•  •  •  3(Ji 

, .  388 

...  398 

. .  408 

. .  422 

••  431 


TO 


310 

■315 
370 

375 
381 


PART    I. 


HISTORICAL. 


i 


NC 


EAl 

Who  First 
Daniel  ( 
Jean  Du 
of  the  I 
Carver's 
for  the  S 
tempt  of 

The  ci 
of  Lake 
solon  Du 
in  the  g 
lately  be( 
adventur 
son,  read 
before  Di 
went  acr 
to  Mont 
no  journz 
what  the 
tions.  V 
as  the  fin 
traversed 
French  \ 
River  Ne 
torn  has  i 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


CHAPTER  I. 


EARLY    EXPLORATIONS    IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 

Who  First  Reached  the  Head  of  Lake  Superior — Grosellier  and  Redisson — 
Daniel  Greysolon  Du  Luth — Meeting  with  Father  Hennepin — Captain 
Jean  Du  Luth  and  his  Trading  Post — Baron  Lahontan's  Travels — Opening 
of  the  Fur  Trade — Veranderie's  Settlement  on  Red  River — Jonathan 
Carver's  Expedition — Alexander  Mackenzie's  Explorations — The  Search 
for  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi — Expeditions  of  Long  and  Pike — At- 
tempt of  General  Cass — Schoolcraft's  Success. 

The  credit  of  being  the  first  white  man  to  visit  the  head 
of  Lake  Superior  was  formerly  claimed  for  Daniel  Grey- 
solon Du  Luth,  a  French  officer,  but  researches  in  Paris 
in  the  government  archives,  the  results  of  which  have 
lately  been  pu*-  in  print,  show  beyond  question  that  two 
adventurous  French  traders,  named  Grosellier  and  Redis- 
son, reached  the  upper  end  of  the  lake  twenty-one  years 
before  Du  Luth,  and,  pushing  on  up  the  St.  L  ais  River, 
went  across  the  country  to  Millc  Lacs.  They  returned 
to  Montreal,  but,  being  ignorant  men  who  had  kept 
no  journals,  no  record  was  made  of  their  discoveries  save 
what  the  Jesuit  fathers  took  down  from  their  conversa- 
tions. We  may  therefore  regard  Grosellier  and  Redisson 
as  the  first  explorers  of  any  portion  of  the  region  now 
traversed  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  The  early 
French  voyageurs  gave  the  name  of  Grosellier  to  the 
River  Nemiscan,  on  which  Fort  Rupert  stands,  but  cus- 
tom has  restored  the  Indian  title. 


NORTHERtV  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


I 


Du  Luth  left  Quebec  September  ist,  1678,  to  continue 
discoveries  in  the  country  west  of  Lake  Superior. 
Father  Marquette  had  ahxady  visited  the  lower  end  of 
the  great  lake  and  the  Jesuits  had  planted  a  mission  on 
its  outlet  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Du  Luth  left  the  head 
of  the  lake  in  1680,  ascended  the  St.  Louis,  made  the  port- 
age to  Mille  Lacs,  and  went  down  the  St.  Francis  River. 
On  the  St.  Francis  he  met  the  expedition  under  Sieur 
Dacan,  with  which  was  Father  Hennepin,  the  Franciscan 
friar,  who  got  rather  more  credit  than  he  deserved  for 
discovering  the  Upper  Mississippi  by  publishing  a  book 
of  travels.  In  a  later  edition  of  Hennepin's  book  the 
author  falsely  claimed  to  have  descended  the  Mississippi 
to  its  mouth.  He  seems  to  have  acquired  the  art  of  lying- 
after  he  returned  to  Europe  and  had  read  the  exaggerated 
and  often  fictitious  narratives  of  trav'  current  at  that 
time.  At  all  events  his  account  of  his  journey  to  the 
Upper  Mississippi  is  truthful. 

There  was  also  a  Captain  Jean  Du  Luth,  presumably  a 
brother  and  comrade  of  Daniel  Greysolon  Du  Luth.  This 
Captain  Jean  built  a  trading  post  at  the  mouth  of  Pigeon 
River,  near  the  Grand  Portage,  and  there  is  a  tradition 
that  at  one  time  in  the  course  of  his  career  as  a  trader  he 
put  up  a  log  cabin  on  Minnesota  Point,  where  the  present 
town  of  Duluth  stands.  Whether  the  town  was  named 
for  Jean  or  Daniel  is  a  question  which  the  antiquarians 
of  the  place  must  settle  for  themselves. 

After  Hennepin  and  the  Du  Luths  came  Le  Sueur,  in 
1683,  who  explored  the  country  thoroughly,  opened  trade 
relations  with  the  Sioux,  then  inhabiting  it,  and  built  a 
fort  on  Lake  Pepin  in  1695.  As  early  as  1687  a  tolerably 
correct  map  of  the  region  immediately  west  and  north  of 
Lake  Superior  was  made  by  Franquelin,  an  expert  to- 
pographer sent  out  for  the  purpose.  A  copy  of  this  map 
may  be  seen  in  the  New  York  State  Library. 


>  continue 
Superior, 
or  end  of 
lission  on 
t  the  head 
:  the  port- 
cis  River. 
ider  Sieur 
"ranciscan 
erved  for 
[g  a  book 
book  the 
[ississippi 
t  of  lying 
aggerated 
it  at  that 
ey  to  the 

umably  a 
th.  This 
Df  Pigeon 
tradition 
trader  he 
ic  present 
IS  named 
iquarians 

Sueur,  in 
led  trade 
d  built  a 
tolerably 
north  of 
[pert  to- 
this  map 


a 

a 


m 

6 

u 

'o 

CI 


O 

<U 
o 

o 

B 
rt 


a 

rt 
u 


MV< 


mW 


EARLY  EXPLORATIONS  IN   THE  NORTHWEST. 


Something  should  also  be  said  here  of  the  travels  of 
Baron  Lahontan,  an  adventurous  Frenchman,  who  cam- 
paigned against  the  Indians  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  all  along  the  shores  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  from  Fort  Frontenac,  on  Lake  Ontario,  to  Mack- 
inac. He  was  a  good  writer  as  well  as  a  stout  fighter, 
an  excellent  raconteur,  a  sharp  satirist,  and  an  aggressive 
rationalist,  who  might  be  classed  with  the  Voltaire  school 
if  he  had  not  lived  before  Voltaire's  time.  Returning  to 
Europe  after  nearly  twenty  years'  service  in  America,  he 
published  at  The  Hague,  in  1703,  a  curious  book,  partly 
devoted  to  describing  his  journeys  and  adventures  on  the 
frontier,  and  partly  to  reports  of  imaginary  conversations 
between  an  Indian  philosopher  and  a  pious  Jesuit,  on 
the  subject  of  religion,  in  which  the  gentle  savage  always 
got  the  better  of  the  argument.  This  book,  with  its 
curiously  distorted  maps  and  its  pictures  of  Indian  life, 
is  regarded  as  a  great  treasure  by  collectors.  In  op.e  of 
its  chapters  Lahontan  describes  a  journey  from  Mackinac, 
in  i66g,  to  Green  Bay,  and  thence  by  the  Fox  River  and 
across  the  Portage  to  the  Wisconsin,  down  the  Wisconsin 
to  the  Mississippi,  and  up  the  Mississippi  to  a  river  he 
called  Long  River.  He  professed  to  have  sailed  up  this 
stream  for  a  month,  visiting  numerous  Indian  towns,  and 
he  made  a  map  of  it,  on  which  it  appears  to  be  a  mighty 
river  heading  in  high  mountains  somewhere  out  on  the 
plains  of  Dakota.  It  is  an  open  question  whether  the 
Baron  ever  went  up  the  Mississippi  at  all,  or  whether  he 
actually  entered  the  mouth  of  one  of  the  Minnesota 
streams,  and  drew  on  his  imagination  for  the  rest.  From 
the  fact  that  the  map,  described  as  a  copy  of  one  drawn 
on  stag-skin  by  an  Indian,  shows  a  second  large  river 
heading  in  the  mountains  and  running  westward,  it  may 
be  inferred  that  Lahontan  got  from  the  savages  some 
account   of  the  Upper  Missouri,  the  Rocky  Mountains, 


;!•■.■ 
•)!' 


8 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


and  the  Columbia  River,  and  carelessly  or  purposely 
confused  a  minor  affluent  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  with 
the  mighty  stream  heading  in  the  dividing  ridge  of  the 
continent.  Lahontan's  book  was  translated  into  English 
and  republished  in  London.  It  attracted  much  atten- 
tion, and  for  a  long  time  confused  the  ideas  of  geographers 
concerning  the  Northwest. 

Not  long  afterward,  the  eager  quest  for  the  valuable 
furs  of  the  Northern  regions  of  the  American  continent 
led  to  the  opening  of  a  commercial  route  from  the  north- 
ern shore  of  Lake  Superior,  by  what  was  known  as  the 
Grand  Portage  and  by  a  chain  of  small  lakes  and  rivers, 
to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  Lake  Winnipeg,  and  the  Sas- 
katchewan country.  Regular  trading  posts  were  estab- 
lished, and  the  Catholic  missionaries,  as  daring  and  ener- 
getic as  the  traders,  carried  tlie  religion  of  France  wher- 
ever its  flag  went.  The  French  Canadians  and  half-breeds 
who  traversed  the  northern  wilderness  to  traffic  with  the 
Indians  for  furs  were  called  Courcurs  du  Boix.  They 
made  regular  journeys  from  Montreal  to  Lake  Winnipeg 
by  way  of  the  Ottawa  River,  Lake  Nipissing  and  the 
French  River  to  the  Georgian  Bay  on  Lake  Huron,  and 
thence  by  the  St.  Mary's  River  and  Lake  Superior  and 
the  Grand  Portage  to  their  destination.  When  Canada 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Great  Britain  the  Northwest  Fur 
Company  was  organized,  and  controlled  the  regions  north 
and  west  of  Lake  Superior  by  a  system  of  posts  and  lines 
of  canoe  travel  for  transporting  merchandise  and  pel- 
tries. 

The  first  settlement  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North  was 
made  by  a  French  officer  named  Veranderie,  who  ascended 
the  stream  in  1728  and  built  a  fort  on  its  bank.  Follow- 
ing him  came  Legardeur  de  St.  Pierre,  who  in  1750 
visited  the  country  between. Lake  Superior  and  the  Red 
River  and  made  treaties  with  the  Indians. 


EARLY  EXPLORATIONS  IN   THE  NORTHWEST. 


\ 


The  first  English  attempt  to  explore  the  country  west 
of  the  great  lakes  was  that  of  Jonathan  Carver,  who 
started  from  Connecticut  in  1763  with  the  avowed  inten- 
tion of  going  across  the  continent  to  the  Pacific.  He 
went  as  far  as  the  Minnesota  River,  and,  returning  in 
safety,  printed  an  account  of  his  travels — as  was  the  fash- 
ion of  the  time — which  attracted  considerable  attention 
in  Europe. 

The  next  notable  explorer  of  the  Northwest  was  the 
Scotchman  Alexander  Mackenzie,  who  was  the  first 
white  man  to  cross  the  North  American  continent  at  a 
higher  latitude  than  the  Spanish  possessions  in  Mexico. 
Mackenzie  was  in  the  service  of  the  Northwest  Fur  Com- 
pany. He  started  from  Montreal  in  1789,  and  reached 
the  Arctic  Ocean  at  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  named 
in  his  honor.  Returning  to  FortChipewyan,  on  the  Lake 
of  the  Hills,  where  the  company  had  a  trading  post,  he 
remained  there  until  1792,  when  he  ascended  the  Peace 
River  to  its  source  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  crossed  the 
mountains  and  descended  a  small  stream  which  puts  into 
a  bay  on  the  Pacific  coast,  just  above  Queen  Charlotte's 
Sound. 

Mackenzie's  account  of  his  travels,  published  in  1801, 
was  accompanied  by  a  good  map,  which  is  an  excellent 
index  to  the  information  then  current  about  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  northwestern  portions  of  the  American 
continent.  The  Hudson's  Bay  country,  with  the  rivers 
putting  into  the  bay  and  the  numerous  lakes  they  drain, 
was  nearly  as  accurately  mapped  then  as  now,  but  the 
whole  region  south  of  the  British  boundary,  from  the  Red 
River  of  the  North  to  Puget  Sound,  was  almost  a  blank. 
The  Missouri  had  been  ascended  by  traders  as  far  as  the 
mouth  of  Knife  River,  where  the  Mandan  Indians  had' 
a  village.  Beyond  that  point  nothing  appears  on  the 
map  save  the  ridge  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and   the 


10 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


!        '! 


course  of  the  Columbia  River  as  far  as  a  ship  could  sail 
up  with  the  tide. 

As  late  as  the  "-hird  decade  of  the  present  century, 
the  sources  of  the  Mississippi  were  sought  by  explorers 
with  much  of  the  zeal  and  spirit  of  adventure  which 
characterized  the  search  for  the  sources  of  the  Nile. 
The  portion  of  Minnesota  west  of  Lake  Superior 
and  north  of  the  present  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  is  thickly  dotted  with  small  lakes,  varying 
greatly  in  size  and  shape  and  enveloped  in  pine  forests. 
In  one  of  these  lakes  it  was  known  would  be  found  the 
ultimate  source  of  the  great  river,  but  it  was  a  long  time 
before  the  right  one  was  discovered. 

In  1807,  when  Lewis  and  Clarke  were  crossing  the  con- 
tinent, the  United  States  Government  commissioned 
Lieutenant  Zebulon  M.  Pike  to  examine  the  sources  of 
the  Mississippi.  He  went  up  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony 
and  followed  the  river  to  Leech  Lake,  where  his  party 
was  received  with  enthusiasm  at  a  camp  of  trappers  and 
fur  hunters  from  Canada.  After  visiting  Red  Cedar  Lake 
Pike  returned  to  St.  Louis,  his  journey  having  occupied 
nine  months.  He  subsequently  ascended  the  Arkansas 
Hiver  to  the  mountains,  and  entering  Spanish  territory 
was  captured  with  his  ragged  and  half-starved  followers, 
and  escorted  across  Texas  to  Natchitoches  in  Louisiana. 
One  of  the  loftiest  peaks  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  chain 
bears  his  name. 

In  1820  General  Cass,  then  Governor  of  Michigan  Terri- 
tory, took  up  the  search  for  the  source  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  leaving  Detroit  witu  twenty  experienced  woodsmen 
and  voyageurs  procc-'.ded  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior, 
and  crossed  the  forests  to  the  Mississippi  by  the  route  of 
the  Canadian  fur  traders.  Cass  followed  the  river  for  150 
miles  to  Lake  Winnipeg  (not  the  large  lake  of  the  same 
name  in  the   British  territory,  it  should   be  understood), 


EARLY  EXPLORATIONS  IN    THE  NORTHWEST. 


I  I 


and  going  still  further  discovered  and  named  Lake  Cass. 
Here  his  provisions  were  so  nearly  exhausted  that  he 
deemed  it  prudent  to  return. 

In  1828  the  government  sent  Major  Long  witli  an  ex- 
Ijcdition  to  explore  the  Upper  Mississippi  country.  Long 
had  previously  followed  up  the  Platte  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  left  his  name  on  Long's  Peak.  He  went 
up  the  Mississippi  from  St.  Louis  to  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Peter's  River,  and,  making  his  way  up  that  stream  to 
its  source,  crossed  the  country  to  Crooked  Lake,  Rainy 
Lake,  and  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  arrived  at  the 
watershed  from  which  the  streams  run  northward  to 
Hudson's  Bay.  He  then  turned  back,  reached  Lake 
Superior,  and  returned  east  by  the  way  of  the  Sault  Ste. 
Marie. 

In  1832  another  expedition  was  sent  out  by  the  gov- 
ernment, under  the  command  of  Schoolcraft,  the  traveler 
and  student  of  Indian  customs  and  languages.  Leaving 
the  head  of  Lake  Superior  in  June,  he  two  months  later 
reached  Lake  Itaska,  called  by  the  French  Lac  de  la 
Bichc,  which  he  determined  to  be  the  source  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Thus  a  region  traversed  by  the  French  voya- 
gcurs  nearly  two  hundred  yeais  before  was  at  last  defi- 
nitely known  and  mapped. 


CHAPTER   II. 


DISCOVERY    OF    THE    COLUMIJIA    RIVER    AND    PUGET 

SOUND. 

Tradition  of  the  River  of  the  West — Fictitious  Spanisli  Claim  of  Discovery 
— Captain  Gray  and  the  Ship  Columbia — Captain  Kendrick's  Discovery 
— Vancouver's  Mistake — Gray  Sails  into  the  Columbia  River — His  Log- 
book Entry-  Expedition  of  the  ISritish  Ilrii;  Chatham — The  Tale  of  the 
Greek  Pilot  Juan  de  Fuca — Da  Fonte's  Pretended  Discoveries — Van- 
couver's Explorations — Puget  Sound  Mapped  and  Named — Voyages  of 
Lopez  de  Haro  and  Elisa. 

A  TRADITION  carlv  came  across  the  continent  from 
tribe  to  tribe  of  Indians  to  the  French  and  English 
explorers  and  trappers,  that  a  great  river  had  its  sources 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains  near  the  headwaters  of  the  Mis- 
souri, and  ran  westward  into  the  Pacific.  The  Spanish 
missionaries  and  adventurers  who  established  themselves 
at  Monterey  and  on  the  Bay  of  San  P^rancisco  in  Cali- 
fornia, heard  the  same  reports.  The  unknown  stream 
was  spoken  of  as  the  River  of  the  West,  but  no  white 
man  had  seen  its  mouth,  or  any  part  of  its  course,  or  any 
of  its  tributaries.  The  Spaniards,  when  they  began  to 
push  their  explorations  north  of  San  Francisco,  gave  a 
name  to  the  great  river  without  having  found  it,  calling 
it  the  San  Roque.  Indeed,  after  it  had  been  found  by  i.n 
American,  they  set  up  a  claim  to  priority  of  dir.covery, 
and  asserted  that  in  1775  one  of  their  corvettes,  the  San 
Jago,  commanded  by  Captain  Don  Bruno  de  Heuta,  had 
entered  its  mouth.  The  claim  was  not  confirmed.  Prob- 
ably the  Spanish  captain  put  into  one  of  the  bays  on  the 
Oregon  coast,  and  thought  the  mysterious  San  Roque  of 
the  Madrid  map  might  flow  into  its  head,  but  lacked  the 


^"i^imif^tim 


9B 


D/SCOV 


t 


the  Engl 
\\ est  co:u 


DISCOVER  V  or  COL  UMBIA  RIVER  AND  PUGET  SOUND.  \  3 


■\ 


enterprise  to  sail  up  it  and  sec.  In  1788  an  English  cap- 
tain sailed  straight  past  the  mouth  of  the  river,  gave 
Cape  Disappointment  its  name,  and  reported  that  there 
was  no  river  there  at  all,  but  only  an  inlet,  with  a  sand 
spit  blocking  its  entrance. 

In  1789  two  Boston  trading  ships  came  out  to  the 
Northwest  coast.  One  was  the  Washington,  commanded 
by  Robert  Gray,  and  the  other  the  Columbia,  com- 
manded by  John  Kcndrick.  Their  object  was  to  gather 
furs  from  the  Indians,  ex  .hange  them  in  China  for 
teas  and  other  commodities,  and  then  return  to  Bos- 
ton. This  venturesome  expedition  was  fitted  out  by  six 
merchants,  Joseph  Barrell,  Samuel  Brown,  Charles  Bul- 
f.nch,  John  Derby,  Crowcll  Hatch,  and  J.  M.  Pintard, 
and  grew  out  of  a  talk  about  Captain  Cook's  voyages, 
and  what  that  famous  navigator  had  written  about  the 
fineness  and  beauty  of  the  sea-otter  skins  found  in  abun- 
dance on  the  Northwest  coast,  and  the  high  price  they 
commanded  in  China.  On  the  way  to  Nootka  Sound, 
then  the  resort  of  whaling  vessels  on  the  North  Pacific 
coast.  Captain  Gray  thought  he  saw  indications  of  the 
mouth  of  a  great  river  near  latitude  46°.  The  two  ships 
wintered  in  the  Sound,  and  the  next  spring  Captain  Gray 
took  the  furs  they  had  bought,  and,  loading  the  Colun'- 
hiii-,  -ailed  to  Ciiina,  leaving  Captain  Kcndrick  with  tii 
iVis//;'  non  to  gather  another  cargo.  Kcndrick  demon- 
s'ratr^l  during  his  companion's  long  absence^  that  Nootka 
va;-  :'  I  "bland,  and  not  the  mainland,  by  sailing  donii  the 
Gulf  ■  r  G'  c  "gia  and  the  Canal  de  Ilaro,  to  the  Straits  of 
San  Jui'.i  de  Fuca,  and  thence  out  to  sea.  The  island 
was  soon  after  called  Quadra,  or  Vancouver's  Island,  in 
honor  of  both  the  commandants  at  Nootka,  whose  mas- 
ter, the  King  of  Spain,  then  claimed  the  country,  and  of 
the  English  naval  officer  sent  out  to  explore  the  North- 
V  est  coast.    Kendrick,  in  this  voyage,  passed  the  entrance 


I  !-■ 


■wwpn 


«mmmm 


14 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


DISCO  VE 


to  the  beautiful  inland  sea  now  known  as  Puget  Sound. 
He  got  no  credit  for  the  discovery,  however,  for"  Van- 
couver's maps  and  books,  which  soon  after  made  the 
region  known  to  the  world,  made  no  mention  of  his 
name. 

Captain  Gray,  in  the  Columbia,  arrived  at  Boston  in 
1790.  He  was  the  first  American  to  carry  the  flag  of  the 
young  republic  around  the  globe.  The  merchants  lost 
money  on  their  venture,  but  they  refitted  the  ship  and 
sent  her  back  around  the  Horn.  She  arrived  in  1791  in 
Fuca*.-:  Strait,  and  rejoined  her  consort,  the  Waslnngton. 
In  th.  '  "  ':r  of  1792,  Captain  Gray  sailed  southward  to 
search  i..  e  river  whose  mouth  he  thought  he  saw  in 
1789.  Cru  jing  down  the  coast,  he  met  Captain  Van- 
couver's ship  going  northward.  One  of  the  British 
officers  came  aboard  the  Columbia,  and  Gray  spoke  of  his 
belief  that  there  ,vas  a  great  river  emptying  into  the  Pacific 
at  about  the  46th  parallel.  Vancouver  gave  no  credit  to 
this  idea.  He  had  sailed  by  the  supposed  river  in  clear 
weather  and  in  broad  daylight.  It  seemed  absurd  that  a 
Yankee  skipper  could  discover  a  river  which  a  British 
exploring  expedition  had  not  been  able  to  find. 

The  ships  parted.  Gray  kept  on  to  the  southward. 
He  thought  he  knew  river  water  from  sea  water,  and  was 
sure  he  had  seen  signs  of  a  river's  mouth  on  his  former 
voyage  in  a  bay  he  had  passed.  Flis  persistence  was 
rewarded,  and  on  the  nth  of  May  he  passed  safely  over 
the  bar  he  had  before  observed,  and  beheld  the  great 
mysterious,  long-sought  stream,  stretching  away  to  the 
east.  Like  a  good  patriot  he  named  the  two  points  of 
land  at  the  entrance,  Adams  and  Hancock,  for  the  two 
greatest  Massachusetts  statesmen  of  the  time.  Then  he 
came  to  anchor  and  wrote  in  his  log-book : 

"At  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  nth  beheld 
our  desired   port,   bearing   east-south-cast,   distant    six 


DISCO  VER  Y  OF  COL  UMBTA  RIVER  AND  f  UGE  T  SO UND.    \  5 


leagues.  At  eight  A.M.  bearing  a  little  to  the  windward 
of  the  entrance  of  the  harbor  ;  bore  away  and  ran  in  east- 
north-east  between  the  breakeis,  having  from  five  to  seven 
fathoms  of  water.  When  we  were  over  the  bar,  we  found 
this  to  be  a  large  river  of  fresh  water,  up  which  we 
steered.  Many  canoes  came  alongside.  At  one  P.M. 
came  to  with  the  small  bower  in  ten  fathoms  ;  black  and 
white  sand.  The  entrance  between  the  bars  bore  west- 
south-west,  distant  ten  miles  ;  the  north  side  of  the  river 
distant  a  lialf  mile  from  the  ship;  the  south  side  of  the 
same,  two  and  a  half  miles  distant ;  a  village  on  the 
north  side  of  the  river,  west  by  north,  distant  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile.  Vast  numbeis  of  the  natives  came 
alongside;  people  employed  pumping  the  salt  water  out 
of  our  water-casks,  in  order  to  fill  with  fresh,  while  the 
ship  floated  in.     So  ends." 

Little  did  Captain  Gray  know  at  the  time  how  im- 
portant this  entry  in  his  log-book,  with  its  careful  account 
of  distances  and  bearings,  would  become.  It  gave  the 
great  river  of  the  Pacific  slope  to  the  American  Repub- 
lic, determining  in  after  years  the  claim  of  the  United 
States  to  its  mouth,  when  the  boundary  line  of  the 
Ihitish  possessions  on  the  northwest  coast  came  to  be 
defined. 

With  a  true  sailor's  love  for  his  ship,  Gray  gave  her 
name,  Columbia,  to  the  river.  The  Indians  called  it 
the  Oregon,  and  for  a  time  there  was  a  struggle  on  the 
maps  between  the  old  name  and  the  new,  but  of  late 
years  the  strong,  sonorous  Indian  term  survives,  as 
applied  to  the  stream,  only  in  Bryant's  poem  of  "  Thana- 
topsis."  Gray  remained  in  the  river  for  ten  days  trafficking 
for  furs  and  salmon.  He  sailed  up  stream  for  fifteen  miles, 
and  ran  aground  among  the  islands  above  Tongue 
Point,  but  got  off  safely.  Leaving  the  river's  mouth  on 
the  20th  of  May,  he  ran  up  to  Nootka  Sound,   the    favor- 


^'ff^g9BTOfflt^''jai^-''-lWtf»»WS»J)!lBlV^ 


ii; 


■  (-  ■ 


i6 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ite  harbo-  for  trading  vessels,  and  reported  his  discovery 
to  the  Spanish  Commandante,  Quadra. 

In  October  of  the  same  year  one  of  Vancouver's  vessels, 
the  brig  Chathajn,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Broughton, 
was  dispatched  to  the  Columbia  River  from  Puget 
Sound,  which  the  English  and  Spanish  were  both  survey- 
ing, both  nations  at  that  time  claiming  the  region  by  right 
of  prior  discovery.  Broughton  sailed  up  the  river  as  far 
as  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Vancouver.  In  the  con- 
troversy which  afterward  arose  between  the  British  and 
the  American  governments  over  the  title  to  the  Ore. 
gon  Territory,  the  British,  not  being  able  to  disprove  the 
fact  of  Captain  Gray's  first  entrance  to  the  river's  mouth, 
denied  that  the  Columbia  was  a  river  below  Ton<rue 
Voint,  asserting  that  it  was  there  an  inlet  or  sound,  and  that 
the  real  river  had  been  first  seen  by  Lieutenant  Broughton. 
Til!,  p.v-posterous  claim  was  overthrown  by  the  log-book 
of  the  Coliivihia  and  the  testimony  of  Commandante 
Quadra.  Gray's  memory  is  perpetuated  by  the  name 
of  the  little  bay  in  which  he  first  cast  anchor  and  the 
small  river  jutting  into  it,  and  also  by  the  name  of  Gray's 
Harbor,  a  large  bay  on  the  coast  north  of  the  Columbia. 

Whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  the  Greek  pilot  Juan  de 
Fucagets  honor  on  the  maps  for  the  discovery  of  the 
body  of  water  generally  known  as  Puget  Sound.  His 
name  is  applied  to  the  broad  strait  which,  putting  in 
straight  west  from  the  ocean  between  the  rocky  coast 
of  Vancouver's  Island  on  one  side  nnd  the  bold  moun- 
tains of  the  Olympian  chain  on  the  other,  gives  access  to 
the  deep  channels,  spacious  inlets,  winding  canals  and 
countless  sheltered  coves  and  green  islands  of  the  Sound. 
Yet  nobody  knows  to  a  certainty  that  the  Greek  ever 
saw  the  strait.  There  is  no  evidence  save  his  own  asser- 
tion, and  whatever  of  truth  he  told  was  badly  diluted 
with  lies.     His  real  name  was  Caposiolus  Valerianos  de 


DISCO  VER  Y  OF  COL  UMBIA  RI VER  A  ND  P  UGE  T  SO  UNO.   j  7 

Fuca,  but  when  he  entered  the  Spanish  service,  toward 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  lie  found  it  convenient 
to  adopt  the  familiar  name  of  Juan  ;  or  perhaps  the  Span- 
ish officers,  despairing  of  the  pronunciation  of  his  real 
appellation,  called  him  Juan,  as  Californians  call  all 
Chinamen  John.  Being  at  Venice  in  1596,  De  Fuca  gave 
to  an  Englishman,  Michael  Locke,  an  account  of  his 
last  voyage.  He  said  that  he  was  sent  from  Acapulco, 
Mexico,  in  1592,  with  a  caraval  and  a  pinnace,  to  find  a 
communication  between  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic  ;  that 
he  sailed  northward,  and  between  latitude  47°  and  48° 
perceived  a  large  opening  which  might  be  a  strait; 
this  he  entered  and  sailed  for  twenty  days.  In  some 
places  the  land  bore  to  the  northeast  and  in  some 
to  the  northwest.  He  saw  a  great  number  of  inhabi- 
tants clad  in  the  skins  of  beasts.  The  country  seemed 
fertile  and  abounded  in  gold,  silver  and  pearls.  He 
continued  his  course  and  reached  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
This  tale  was  written  down  by  Locke  and  sent  to 
England.  It  was  discredited  there,  and  with  reason,  and 
was  long  regarded  as  a  pure  fiction,  but  in  later  times 
it  has  been  thought  not  improbable  that  De  Fuca 
really  entered  the  strait  which  bears  his  name,  and, 
wishing  to  magnify  the  importance  of  his  exploit,  pre- 
tended that  it  was  the  long-sought  passage  between  the 
two  oceans. 

Half  a  century  later  the  Spanish  Admiral  Da  Fonte 
professed  to  have  discovered  in  latitude  53°  a  large  river 
which  he  named  Rio  de  las  Reyes,  and  pretended  to  have 
ascended  to  a  great  archipelago,  and  further  to  a  mighty 
waterfall  and  a  big  lake  near  Hudson's  Bay,  He,  too, 
was  a  liar,  like  most  of  the  braggart  crew  of  Spanish 
voyagers  of  his  time,  but  his  story  may  have  had  the 
foundation  of  fact  of  an  actual  entrance  to  Puget  Sound. 

Whatever  truth  there  was,  however,  in  the  narrative  of 


Ill 


m 


i8 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


r 


the  Greek  pilot  and  the  Spanish  admiral,  it  is  certain 
that  the  world  knew  nothing  definite  about  the  strait  or 
the  sound  until  Captain  George  Vancouver  of  the  British 
navy  explored  them  in  1792.  Vancouver,  who  had  accom- 
panied Captain  Cook  on  his  second  and  third  voyages, 
was  sent  out  from  England  in  1791,  with  two  vessels — 
the  Discovery  and  the  ChatJiam — to  explore  the  western 
coast  of  America.  He  failed  to  find  the  Columbia  River, 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  but  sailed  into  the 
strait  on  the  30th  of  April,  1792,  and  called  it  on  his  map 
the  "supposed  Strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca."  Later  map- 
makers  omitted  the  word  "  supposed,"  and  thus  the  name 
of  the  lying  Greek  was  perpetuated  and  permanently 
attached  to  one  of  the  most  magnificent  tidal  channels  of 
the  world.  On  some  maps  he  is  given  the  odor  of  sanc- 
tity by  having  the  prefix  "  San  "  to  his  name. 

Vancouver  anchored  in  Port  Discovery,  and  while  his 
ships  were  being  calked  explored  the  sound  with  boats. 
He  distributed  lavishly  upon  mountains,  bays,  inlets 
and  islands  the  names  of  his  friends  in  England  and  of  the 
officers  of  his  vessels.  Even  the  midshipmen  came  in  for 
a  share  of  these  easy  honors.  Mount  Rainier  he  named 
after  Rear  Admiral  Rainier,  Mount  Baker  and  Whidby's 
Island  after  two  of  his  lieutenants,  Hood's  Canal  after  the 
Right  Honorable  Lord  Hood,  Port  Townshend  (it  should 
be  spelled  with  an  Jt)  "in  honor  of  the  noble  Marquis  of 
that  name ;"  Vashon's  Lsland  after  his  friend  Captain 
Vashon  of  the  navy,  Mount  St.  Helens  after  Lord  St. 
Helens,  and  soon.  Lieutenant  Puget's  name  was  rightly 
given  to  the  crescent-shaped  body  of  water  at  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  beautiful  inland  sea — he  having  commanded 
the  boat  which  discovered  it.  The  main  entrance  from 
the  strait  was  called  Admiralty  Inlet,  and  so  it  appears 
on  the  maps  to  this  day,  but  custom  has  long  since 
applied  the  name  Puget  Sound  to  the  whole  tidal  estuary 


DISCO  I  'ER  y  OF  COL  UMP  ^A  RI VER  A  iVD  P  UGE  T  SO  UXD.   \  9 


with  all  its  ramifications.  Returning  to  England,  Van- 
couver died  in  1798,  at  the  age  of  fo'-ty-onc.  Tlie  narrative 
of  his  voyage  was  published  by  his  brother  John  the  same 
year  and  dedicated  to  tiie  King. 

A  few  years  before  Vancouver  explored  the  waters  of 
the  sound,  two  Spanish  navigators  sailed  through  the 
wide  strait  separating  Vancouver's  Island  from  the  main- 
land, starting  from  Nootka  Sound,  where  their  country 
had  a  military  post.  In  1789  Lopez  de  Haro  discovered 
the  archipelago  and  canal  which  bear  his  name,  and  in 
1 791  Elisa  sailed  around  the  islands  ana  gave  names  to 
San  Juan  and  Lopez  Islands  and  probably  to  Fidalgo, 
lying  south  of  the  group,  and  to  Rosario  Strait.  Neither 
of  these  navigators  brought  back  any  knowledge  of  the 
waters  of  Pugct  Sound. 


y\ 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   LEWIS  AND    CLARKE   EXrEDITION. 

Thomas  Jefferson's  EfTorts  to  Open  a  Route  to  the  Pacific — Ledyard's  At- 
tempt liaflled — Captain  Lewis'  First  I'loject — Congress  I'rovides  for  an 
Exploration — Character  of  Lewis — Captain  William  Clarke — The  Expe- 
dition Organized — Its  Route,  Adventures,  and  Arrival  at  the  Mouth  of 
the  C()iuml)ia.  The  Return  Journey — Great  Interest  in  the  Results  of 
the  Expedition. 

To  Thomas  Jefferson  belongs  the  honor  of  planning 
and  setting  on  foot  the  enterprise  of  exploring  the  in- 
terior continental  region  on  the  line  now  followed  by  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  When  in  Paris  as  American 
Envoy  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  John  Ledyard,  who 
had  accompanied  Captain  Cook  on  one  of  his  voyages. 
Jefferson  proposed  to  Ledyard  that  he  should  cross 
Russia  to  Kamtchatka,  take  passage  in  a  Russian  trad- 
ing vess'"!  to  Nootka  Sound,  "fall  down  into  the  latitude 
of  the  Missouri  River,  and  penetrate  to  and  through  that 
to  the  United  States."  Ledyard  eagerly  seized  the  idea, 
and  by  Jefferson's  assistance  he  obtained  the  protection 
of  the  I'Lmpress  Catharine,  and  started  on  his  journey. 
When  two  hundred  miles  from  Kamtchatka  he  was 
arrested  by  an  officer  of  the  Empress,  who  had  changed 
her  mind  after  his  departure,  put  into  a  close  carriage, 
and  taken  as  a  prisoner  to  Poland.  When  released,  with 
health  broken  by  the  hardships  he  had  been  subj'ectcd  to, 
he  was  glad  to  relinquish  his  project  and  leave  the  Rus- 
sian territories.  Subsequently  he  went  to  Africa  and 
died  at  Cairo. 

Jefferson  held  fast  to  his  idea  of  opening  the  interior  oi 
the  continent  by  the  route  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Co- 


s  At- 
br  .111 
£xpc- 
ith  of 
ills  of 


ning 
2  in- 
,'  the 
rlcan 
who 
ages, 
cross 
trad- 
tudc 

that 

idea, 
:tion 

ney. 
was 

iged 

lagc,    ^ 

with 

d  to, 

Rus- 
and 


or  oi 
fcCo- 


o 

a. 


liimbia  rl 

Philosop] 

compctci 

direction 

had  he  re 

tain  Mcri 

family,  w 

urged  J of 

dition.     J 

go  with  1: 

cion  and  ] 

a  French 

icana,"  or 

tucky,  wil 

when    ord 

directing 

Jcfferso 

mcndatioi 

sending  ai 

source,  to 

communic 

Ocean." 

two  years  i 

cation  to 

President 

sketch,  wr 

lished  jour 

thus   desci 

knowing   1 

sessing  a 

nothing  bu 

careful  as  z 

steady  in  t 

mate  with 

habituated 


THE  LEWIS  AND  CLARKE  EXPEDITION. 


21 


lumbia  rivers.  In  1792  he  proposed  to  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  a  subscrintion  to  eiigai;c  some 
competent  person  to  explore  the  region  in  an  opposite 
direction  from  that  which  Ledyard  designed  to  take, 
had  he  reached  the  American  shore  of  the  Pacific.  Cap- 
tain Meriwether  Lewis,  a  young  ofificer  of  good  Virginia 
family,  whose  uncle  had  married  a  sister  of  Washington, 
urged  Jefferson  to  obtain  for  him  the  charge  of  the  expe- 
dition. Jefferson  thought  only  one  companion  should 
go  with  him,  because  a  larger  party  might  excite  suspi- 
cion and  hostility  among  the  Indians.  Andre  Michaux, 
a  French  botanist  and  author  of  \.\\q.^' Flora  Borcalis  Amer- 
icana^' oifered  his  services  and  proceeded  as  far  as  Ken- 
tucky, with  the  purpose  of  meeting  Lewis  at  St.  Louis, 
when  orders  from  the  French  Minister  reached  him 
directing  him  to  abandon  the  expedition. 

Jefferson  became  President  in  1801,  an  1  o\\  his  recom- 
mendation Congress  in  1 803  voted  a  sum  of  money  "  for 
sending  an  exploring  party  to  trace  the  Missouri  to  its 
source,  to  cross  the  Highlands,  and  follow  the  best  water 
communication  which  offered  thence  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean."  Captain  Lewis  had  then  been  with  Jefferson 
two  years  as  his  private  secretary.  He  renewed  his  appli- 
cation to  have  the  direction  of  the  expedition,  and  the 
President  readily  granted  the  request.  In  a  biographical 
sketch,  written  by  Jefferson  and  prefaced  to  the  pub- 
lished journal  of  the  expedition,  the  character  of  Lewis  is 
thus  described  :  "  I  had  now  had  the  opportunity  of 
knowing  him  intimately.  Of  courage  undaunted,  pos- 
sessing a  firmness  and  perseverance  of  purpose  which 
nothing  but  impossibility  could  divert  from  its  direction  ; 
careful  as  a  father  of  those  committed  to  his  charge,  yet 
steady  in  the  maintenance  of  order  and  discipline  ;  inti- 
mate with  the  Indian  character,  customs,  and  principles; 
habituated  to  the  hunting  life,  guarded  by  exact  observa- 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


■M 


tions  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  life  of  his  own  country 
against  losing  time  in  the  description  of  objects  already 
possessed  ;  honest,  disinterested,  liberal,  of  sound  under- 
standing and  a  fidelity  to  truth  so  scrupulous  that  what- 
ever he  should  report  would  be  as  certain  as  if  seen  by 
ourselves.  With  all  these  qualifications,  as  if  selected  and 
implanted  by  nature  in  one  body  for  this  express  pur- 
pose, I  could  have  no  hesitation  in  confiding  the  enter- 
prise to  him." 

Captain  Lewis  selected  for  the  second  officer  of  the 
expedition  his  friend  William  Clarke,  a  Virginian  by 
birth,  then  living  in  Pcnnsj'lvania,  and  President  Jefferson 
commissioned  him  a  captain  in  the  army.  The  two 
leaders  were  of  about  the  same  age,  Lewis  being  thirty 
and  Clarke  thirty-four  at  the  time  the  expedition  set  out. 
Lewis'  choice  proved  fortunate  in  all  respects.  Clarke 
was  intelligent,  courageous,  persevering,  and  cool-headed. 
Commanding  on  many  occasions  an  advance  guard  of  the 
party,  and  returning  with  a  detachment  for  nearly  a  thou- 
sand miles  by  a  different  route  from  that  pursued  by  his 
chief,  he  displayed  excellent  judgment  in  his  dealings 
with  the  Indians,  whose  hostility  might  have  destroyed 
the  expedition,  great  fortitude  in  enduring  hardships, 
and  an  enterprising  spirit  which  surmounted  all  obstacles. 
Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  say  which  of  the  two  captains  is 
entitled  to  the  larger  credit,  and  history  has  rightly  de- 
clined to  discriminate  between  them,  and  has  coupled  the 
names  of  both  with  the  great  enterprise  they  conducted. 

President  Jefferson's  intelligent  interest  in  the  expedi- 
tion led  him  to  prepare  with  his  own  hand  a  long  and 
careful  letter  of  instructions.  "  The  object  of  your  mis- 
sion," said  Jefferson,  in  this  letter,  "is  to  explore  the 
Missouri  River,  and  such  principal  stream  as,  by  its 
course  and  communication  with  the  waters  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  whether  the  Columbia,  Oregon,  Colorado,  or  any 


THE  LEWIS  AND  CLARKE  EXPEDITION. 


23 


^ 


■% 


1  by      1 
i  and 
pur- 
nter-      \ 


^J 


Other  river,  may  offer  the  most  direct  and  practicable 
water  communication  across  the  continent  for  the  pur- 
poses of  commerce."  How  scanty  was  the  knowledge  of 
the  interior  of  the  continent  extant  at  the  time  is  shown 
by  Jefferson's  reference 'to  the  Columbia  and  Oregon  as 
separate  streams  instead  of  different  names  for  the  sam.e 
river.  The  letter  went  on  to  instruct  Captain  Lewis  to  in- 
form himself,  while  following  up  the  Missouri,  as  to  the 
streams  heading  opposite  its  sources.  He  was  also  to  learn 
what  he  could  about  the  most  northern  source  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  its  position  in  relation  to  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods — knowledge,  by  the  way,  which  he  was  not  at  all 
likely  to  obtain,  inasmuch  as  the  route  he  was  to  pursue  did 
not  at  any  point  bring  him  within  five  hundred  miles  of 
the  head-waters  of  the  Mississippi.  He  was  to  observe 
the  soil,  the  face  of  the  country,  the  growth  of  vegetable 
productions,  the  animals,  minerals,  climate,  the  Indian 
tribes,  their  language,  traditions,  occupations,  food,  laws, 
and  articles  of  commerce.  As  a  precaution  against  the 
loss  of  the  records  of  the  expedition,  he  was  directed,  in 
case  he  reached  the  Pacific,  to  send  two  trusty  people 
back  by  sea  with  copies  of  his  notes.  In  case  a  return 
by  land  seemed  imminently  dangerous,  he  was  authorized 
to  come  home  with  the  whole  party  by  cither  Cape  Horn 
or  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  He  was  specially  cautioned 
to  cultivate  friendly  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes  ; 
and  was  furnished  with  passports  from  the  French,  Span- 
ish and  English  Ministers,  for  use  in  case  he  entered  the 
territories  of  their  respective  sovereigns. 

At  the  time  these  instructions  were  made  out  the  Mis- 
sissippi  River  was  the  western  boundary  of  the  United 
States.  The  territory  beyond  was  owned  by  France  and 
was  called  by  the  general  name  of  Louisiana.  Spain  had  a 
rival  claim,  however,  to  the  country  above  the  Arkansas 
River,  and  maintained  military  posts  at  St.  Louis  and  St. 


ffl 


:lM 


24 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


'  1  '.v'' 


\ 


I       ';:« 


Genevieve.  Negotiations  were  in  progress  at  Paris  for  the 
abolishment  of  the  Spanish  claim  and  the  cession  of 
the  French  Trans-Mississippi  territory  to  the  United 
States,  and  on  July  1st,  1803,  ten  days  after  the  letter  of 
instructions  was  signed  by  the  President,  news  came  that 
the  territory  had  actually  been  transferred  April  30th. 
Captain  Lewis  was  thus  able  to  carry  to  the  Indian  tribes 
in  the  far  interior  the  tidings  that  their  "  Great  Father  " 
would  thenceforth  be  the  President  of  the  United  States 
instead  of  the  King  of  France.  He  left  W'shington  July 
5th,  and  arrived  at  Cahokia,  near  St.  >uis,  too  late 
to  organize  his  party  and  start  up  the  Missouri  that 
season. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1804,  the  expedition  left  camp  in 
a  keel  boat  having  a  cabin,  and  two  open  canoes.  The 
party  consisted,  besides  the  two  captains,  of  nine  young 
men  from  Kentucky,  fourteen  United  States  soldiers, 
two  French  watermen,  an  interpreter  and  hunter  and  a 
black  servant.  In  addition,  a  corporal  and  six  soldiers 
were  engaged  to  go  as  far  as  the  Mandan  towns  and 
assist  in  carrying  stores  and  repelling  attacks.  Two 
horses  were  led  along  the  river  bank  for  use  in  hunting. 
Early  in  November  the  expedition  went  into  winter  quar- 
ters on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Missouri  at  a  point  about 
fifty  miles  above  the  present  town  of  Bismarck.  The 
journey  was  resumed  April  7th,  1805,  'i"^  the  mouth  of 
the  Yellowstone  was  passed  April  26th.  Arriving  early  in 
June  at  the  mouth  of  the  Marias  River,  the  two  chiefs 
were  in  great  doubt  as  to  whether  that  stream  or  the  one 
it  joined  was  the  true  Missouri.  The  party  went  up  the 
Marias  for  a  short  distance  and  then  returned  to  its 
mouth,  while  Captain  Lewis  made  a  reconnaissance  up  the 
Missouri  and  solved  the  troublesome  problem  by  discov- 
'^ring  on  June  12th  the  Falls  of  the  Missouri,  which  he 
knev/  from  Indian  information  were  upon  the  main  river. 


T. 

The  boat; 
constructs 
courage,  t 
the  19th, a 
of  the  rod 
of  twelve 

Going  c 
were  rowii 
Captain  C 
25th.  Wl 
to  which  c 
entitled  to 
was  the  lai 
names.  T 
honor,  as  ] 
of  the  Uni 
to  the  mid 
as  a  comp 
State,  and 
honor  of  l 
It  is  to  be 
not  contir 
son,  which 
crly  to  be  1 
tributaries 

The  exp 
as  far  as  t! 
going  on  in 
came  to  a  i 
to  the  Pat 
when  an  Ir 
a  small  mo 
roasted  sal 
and  satisfie 
I'acific.     I] 


THE  LEWIS  AND   CLARKE    EXPEDITION. 


2% 


:\ 


The  boats  were  left  below  the  falls  and  light  canoes 
constructed  above.  Proceeding  on  their  way  witli  fresh 
courage,  the  party  passed  the  Gate  of  the  IVIountains  on 
the  TQth,  and  were  profoundly  impressed  with  the  grandeur 
of  the  rocky  walls  towering  above  the  river  to  the  licight 
of  twelve  hundred  feet. 

Going  on  by  land  in  advance  of  the  expedition,  who 
were  rowing  and  poling  the  canoes  up  the  crooked  river, 
Captain  Clarke  reached  the  Forks  of  the  Missouri  on  the 
25th.  When  the  main  body  came  up  a  question  arose  as 
to  which  of  the  three  streams  was  the  real  Missouri  and 
entitled  to  the  name.  It  was  difficult  to  determine  which 
was  the  largest,  and  so  it  was  decided  to  give  them  all  new 
names.  The  western  fork  was  called  Jefferson  River,  in 
honor,  as  Lewis  wrote  in  his  journal,  "  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  and  the  projector  of  the  enterprise;" 
to  the  middle  fork  was  given  the  name  of  Madison  River, 
as  a  compliment  to  James  Madison,  then  Secretary  of 
State,  and  to  the  eastern  fork  that  of  Gallatin  River,  in 
honor  of  Albert  Gallatin,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  name  of  the  Missouri  was 
not  continued  above  the  forks  and  applied  to  the  Jeffer- 
son, which,  as  the  longest  of  the  three  streams,  ought  prop- 
erly to  be  regarded  as  the  main  river,  the  other  two  being 
tributaries  only. 

The  expedition  followed  up  the  course  of  the  Jefferson 
as  far  as  the  canoes  could  be  pushed.  Captain  Lewis 
going  on  in  advance  crossed  the  divide  on  August  1 3th,  and 
came  to  a  little  stream  whose  waters  he  conjectured  ran 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  He  was  confirmed  in  his  belief 
when  an  Indian  invited  him  into  his  bower  and  gave  him 
a  small  morsel  of  boiled  antelope  and  a  piece  of  fresh 
roasted  salmon.  This  was  the  first  salmon  he  had  seen, 
and  satisfied  him  that  he  was  on  waters  flowing  to  the 
Pacific.     He  had  in  fact  reached  one   of  the  little  moun- 


wmammnwuM 


m 


■ii 


:li:'l 


26 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


1  :•':• 


tain  brooks  running  into  the  Salmon  River  in  the  present 
Territory  of  Idaho.  He  returned  to  the  boats,  and  the 
expedition  halted  while  Captain  Clarke  went  ahead  to 
learn  from  the  Shoshone  Indians  whether  the  river  whose 
head-waters  Lewis  had  discovered  afforded  a  practicable 
route  to  the  sea.  He  traveled  three  days,  reached  the 
main  stream  and  followed  it  for  a  day's  journey,  only 
to  become  satisfied  that  it  would  not  be  safe  for  the 
canoes,  owing  to  the  numerous  rapids,  hemmed  in  by 
precipitous  mountain  walls,  where  there  was  no  portage 
for  the  canoes,  and  that  a  land  passage  across  sandy 
deserts  and  rocky  wastes  would  be  too  hazardous  to 
undertake.     He  named  the  stream  the  Lewis  River. 

The  expedition  turned  northward  on  Captain  Clarke's 
return.  The  canoes  were  left  on  the  Jefferson,  a  "  cache  " 
made  of  a  portion  of  the  supplies,  and  with  horses  pur- 
chased from  the  Indians  the  party  proceeded  by  land. 
Captain  Clarke  discovered  the  head-waters  of  the  Deer 
Lodge  River,  which  in  its  lower  course  now  receives 
successively  the  names  of  Hell  Gate  River,  M'ssoula 
River  and  Clarke's  Fork  of  the  Columbia.  The  Indians 
told  him  that  this  stream  ran  into  the  Columbia,  but  dis- 
suaded him  from  attempting  to  descend  it  with  the  expe- 
dition, saying  that  they  had  never  known  any  one  to 
go  down  it,  and  that  when  they  visited  their  friends  on 
the  Columbia  they  went  directly  west  across  the  moun- 
tains. So  it  was  determined  to  push  on  o'  cr  the  Bitter 
Root  Range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  On  September 
1st  the  party  reached  the  head-waters  of  Fish  Creek,  and 
were  over  the  divide  ;  but  their  provisions  were  exhausted 
and  no  game  could  be  fouiid.  They  were  forced  to  live 
for  several  days  on  horseflesh.  The  hospitable  Nez 
Pcrces  relieved  their  wants  and  helped  them  to  construct 
canoes  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Kooskookie  River,  now 
the  Clearwater.     They  left  their  horses  with  the    Indians, 


Avno  pro 


launched 
reached  t 
or  Snake, 
Agreeing 
one  whos 
named  it 
On  the  m 
the    sout 
"  Lewis 
"  Clarke's 
retained  f 
Lewis'  h: 
repulsive 
Shoshone 

It  was  5 
down  to  t 
with  the 
floated  wi 
reached  tl 
around  th( 
passed  th( 
the  mouth 
of  the  ocei 
ing  view," 
of  all  the  I 
the  distani 

The  latt 
cember  we 
bia  and  th 
site  for  a 
from  the  C 
The  winte 
of  moccas 
return  trip 


THE  LEWIS  AND   CLARKE  EXPEDITION. 


27 


f 


Avho  promised  to  take  care  of  them  until  their  return, 
launched  their  boats  on  October  7th,  and  the  next  day- 
reached  the  junction  ofthc  Clearwaicr  with  the  Shoshone, 
or  Snake,  at  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Lewiston. 
Agreeing  that  the  principal  stream  was  the  same  as  the 
one  whose  head-waters  Captain  Lewis  had  discovered,  they 
named  it  in  his  honor.  The  name  did  not  adhere  to  it. 
On  the  maps  for  fifty  years  afierthe  expedition  returned 
the  southern  branch  of  the  Columbia  was  called  the 
"  Lewis  Fork  or  Snake  River,"  and  the  northern  the 
"  Clarke's  Fork  or  Flathead  River."  Clarke's  name  is  still 
retained  for  the  stream  whose  sources  he  discovered,  but 
Lewis*  has  been  dropped  from  recent  maps  and  the 
repulsive  name  Snake,  which  translates  the  Indian  name 
Shoshone,  is  alone  used. 

It  was  smooth  work  now  for  the  expedition  all  the  way 
down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia.  The  men  trafficked 
with  the  Indians  for  provisions,  and  the  canoes  rapidly 
floated  with  the  swift  current.  On  October  17th  they 
reached  the  Columbia,  on  the  22d  they  carried  their  boats 
around  the  Indian  portage  at  the  Dalles,  on  the  31st  they 
passed  the  Cascades,  on  November  6th  they  camped  at 
the  mouth  of  Cowlitz  River,  and  on  the  7th  came  in  sight 
of  the  ocean,  the  goal  of  their  long  journey.  "  The  cheer- 
ing view,"  wrote  Captain  Lewis,  "  exhilarated  the  spirits 
of  all  the  party,  Avho  were  still  more  delighted  on  hearing 
the  distant  roar  of  the  breakers." 

The  laficr  part  of  November  and  the  first  week  in  De- 
cember were  spent  in  exploring  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia and  the  adjacent  ocean  shores.  On  December  8th  a 
site  for  a  winter  camp  was  selected  about  three  miles 
from  the  Columbia  on  a  small  stream  called  the  Notch. 
The  winter  was  spent  in  hunting  and  in  making  a  supply 
of  moccasins  and  dressed  skin  garments  to  wear  on  the 
return  trip.     No  ship  visited  the  mouth  of  the  river  dur- 


iMw»i»y»« 


III 


28 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ing  their  stay,  but  they  got  from  the  Indians  the  names 
of  a  number  of  trading  vessels,  English  and  American, 
which  had  called  there  during  recent  years.  It  was  quite 
uncertain  when  another  would  come,  or  whether  when  one 
should  arrive  she  would  be  bound  for  an  American  port. 
So  it  was  thought  best  for  the  expedition  to  keep  together 
and  return  by  land,  instead  of  a  portion  of  it  going  home 
by  sea,  as  President  Jefferson  had  intended. 

On  the  23d  of  March,  1806,  the  return  journey  was 
begun.  "  The  whole  remaining  stock  of  goods  might  al- 
most have  been  tied  in  two  handkerchiefs,"  wrote  Lewis 
in  his  journal.  *'  Our  clothing  had  been  replaced  with 
dressed  skins,  and  we  had  three  or  four  hundred  pairs  of 
moccasins,  but  for  trading  we  had  only  six  blue  robes, 
one  scarlet  one,  a  coat,  and  a  hat  of  artillery  pattern,  five 
robes  made  of  an  old  flag,  and  a  few  old  clothes  trimmed 
with  riband."  The  problem  of  subsistence  was  thus  a 
serious  one.  On  the  way  out  food  had  been  readily  pro- 
cured from  the  Indians  by  bartering  trinkets  and  cloth- 
ing, and  the  same  sort  of  exchange  had  secured  horses 
for  the  mountain  journey.  Now  there  was  almost  noth- 
ing left  to  trade  with.  Fortunately  a  new  resource  was  i 
discovered.  By  the  aid  of  some  volatile  liniment,  a  little  | 
eye  water  ond  a  few  other  simple  remedies.  Captain  Clarke 
established  a  reputation  a?  a  great  medicine  man,  and  his 
services  were  in  request  at  every  Indian  village  the  expe- 
dition came  to,  liberal  payment  being  always  tendered  in 
whatever  kinds  of  provisions  the  country  afforded. 

On  their  way  up  the  Columbia  the  mouth  of  the  Will- 
amette River  was  discovered.  They  had  missed  it  when 
they  came  down,  because  of  the  islands  which  hid  it. 
Captain  Clarke  ascended  the  Willamette  for  a  day's  journey, 
and  was  so  much  impressed  with  its  magnitude  that  he 
thought  it  might  water  all  the  country  south  to  the  Gulf 
of  California.     He  called  it  the  Multnomah,  the  name  the 


THE  LEWIS  AND   CLARKE  EXPEDITION. 


29 


Indians  gave  it.  The  4th  of  May  found  the  party  again 
at  the  mouth  of  Snake  River.  They  pushed  on  without 
adventure  to  the  Clearwater  and  up  to  Camas  Prairie 
(they  called  it  Ouamash  Prairie) ;  the  same  fertile  spot, 
by  the  way,  for  which  Chief  Joseph  and  his  Nez  Perces 
fought  a  few  years  ago.  The  faithful  Indians  restored 
them  their  horses  and  guided  them  over  the  mountains. 
They  passed  the  main  divide  on  the  26th  of  May  in  a 
snow  storm,  and  reached  the  Warm  Springs,  on  Travel- 
ers' Rest  Creek  on  the  29th. 

Itwasthen  arranged  that  the  expedition  should  divide. 
Captain  Lewis  with  nine  men  going  to  the  Falls  of  the 
Missouri  and  exploring  the  Marias  River  country,  while 
Captain  Clarke  with  the  remainder  of  the  force  went  up 
the  Jefferson  after  the  canoes  and  supplies  left  there. 
Afterward  Clarke  was  to  take  ten  men,  cross  to  the 
Yellowstone,  and  descend  that  river,,  the  others  joining 
Lewis  with  the  canoes  at  the  Falls,  and  all  meeting  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Yellowstone.  This  plan  was  successfully 
carried  out.  Captain  Lewis  reached  the  falls  July  i6th, 
having  on  the  way  the  only  hostile  adventure  of  the 
whole  journey.  He  killed  a  Blackfoot  Indian  who  was 
stealing  his  horses.  For  fifty  years  afterward  the  re- 
vengeful Blackfeet  dated  their  hostility  toward  the 
whites  from  this  occurrence.  On  August  12th  the  two 
parties  met  on  the  Missouri,  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Yellowstone. 

Captain  Clarke's  party  ascended  the  Deer  Lodge,  which 
they  called  Clarke's  River,  crossed  the  Deer  Lodge  Pass, 
and  on  July  8th  found  their  canoes  and  their  "  cache"  on 
the  Jefferson.  On  the  13th  they  reached  the  Forks  of  the 
Missouri.  A  sergeant  and  nine  men  went  on  down  the 
river  with  the  canoes,  while  Captain  Clarke  with  ten  men 
and  fifty  horses  started  by  land  for  the  Yellowstone. 
Going  up  the  Gallatin  River  they  crossed  the  Belt  Moun- 


mmmmmmmm 


30 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


tains  fro-n  its  cast  fork  through  what  is  now  called  Bozc- 
man  Pass,  the  route  taken  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and  nine  miles  from  the  top  of  the  ridge  reached 
the  Yellowstone.  Passing  Shields'  River,  which  they 
named  for  one  of  their  men,  they  camped  at  the  mouth 
of  Big  Timber  Creek  to  build  canoes.  The  Crow  Indians, 
as  thievishly  disposed  then  as  since,  stole  twenty-four  of 
their  horses,  and  wolves  and  dogs  made  off  with  their  dried 
meat.  On  July  24th  they  embarked  and  came  the  same 
day  to  the  mouth  of  Clarke's  Fork  of  the  Yellowstone, 
which  they  named.  Pryor's  River  was  named  for  a  ser- 
geant of  the  party.  The  names  were  perpetuated  in  these 
instances,  but  in  many  cases  besides  that  of  the  Lewis 
River  the  appellations  bestowed  on  the  streams  by  the 
expedition  have  passed  into  forgetfulncss.  The  river 
now  called  the  Palouse,  which  is  the  main  northern  tribu- 
tary of  Snake  River,  was  called  by  them  Urewyer's  River 
as  a  compliment  to  a  brave  and  active  sergeant  of  the 
party,  and  many  of  the  names  on  the  map  Lewis  and 
Clarke  made  on  their  return  will  be  vainly  sought  for  on 
maps  made  in  recent  years. 

The  party  camped  on  the  25th  at  the  foot  of  the 
picturesque  butte  which  bears  the  name  they  gave  it  of 
Pompey's  Pillar,  and  Captain  Clarke  carved  his  name  on 
the  steep  rocky  face  fronting  the  river,  where  it  is  plainly 
legible  to  this  da)'.  The  mouth  of  the  Big  Horn  was 
passed  on  the  26th,  Tongue  River  on  the  28th,  Buffalo 
Shoal  on  the  30th,  and  on  September  3d  the  party  ar- 
rived at  the  Missouri.  On  the  way  down  the  Yellowstone 
great  herds  of  elk  were  seen  and  immense  droves  of  buf- 
falo. At  one  time  the  canoes  were  detained  for  two 
hours  waiting  .""or  a  buffalo  army  to  ford  the  river.  The 
number  of  animals  in  this  enormous  moving  mass  could 
not  be  computed.  Bears  were  frequently  seen,  and  wolves 
abounded.     Sergeant  Pryor,  who  traveled  by  land  with 


THE  LEWIS  AND   CLARKE  EXPEDITION: 


31 


two  companions  and  the  horses  of  the  party,  overtook 
Clarke  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  Indians  had  stolen 
all  the  horses,  and  the  men  had  made  boats  of  twigs  and 
raw  hide  and  safely  descended  the  stream. 

The  mosquitoes  were  so  troublesome  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Yellowstone,  that  Captain  Clarke  left  a  letter  on  a 
pole  to  apprise  Captain  Lewis  of  his  movements,  and 
proceeded  down  the  Missouri.  On  September  12th 
Lewis'  boats  overtook  him,  and  the  reunited  expedition 
made  the  best  i^ime  they  could  down  the  Missouri,  eager 
to  reach  home  wiLh  the  tidings  of  their  exploits  and  dis- 
coveries. They  arrived  at  St.  Louis  September  23d,  fired  a 
salute,  and  went  ashore.  Speaking  of  their  return,  Jef- 
ferson, in  his  biographical  sketch  of  Captain  Lewis,  says: 
"Never  did  a  similar  event  create  more  joy  in  the  United 
States.  The  humblest  citizens  had  taken  a  lively  interest 
in  the  issue  of  this  journey,  and  looked  forward  with 
impatience  to  the  information  it  would  furnish."  Rumors 
of  the  destruction  of  the  expedition  had  been  circulated, 
and  nothing  had  been  heard  from  it  since  it  left  the  Man- 
dan  towns  in  April,  1805. 

Captain  Lewis  was  rewarded  with  the  Governorship  of 
Louisiana  and  later  of  the  newly  organized  Territory  of 
Missouri,  created  by  Congress,  and  embracing  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  extending  from  the 
Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  Captain  Clarke 
was  appointed  General  of  the  Militia  and  Agent  for  Indian 
Affairs  Afterward,  on  the  death  of  Lewis,  Clarke  be- 
came Governor  of  the  Territory,  and  held  the  office  seven 
years.  Lewis  came  to  a  sad  end.  He  was  subject  to 
attacks  of  hypochondria.  His  active  life  in  the  field,  in 
command  of  the  expedition,  relieved  him  for  the  time 
from  these  fits  of  low  spirits,  which  seemed  to  be  consti- 
tutional, but  they  returned  when  he  was  confined  to  the 
office  work  of  his  governorship  in  St.  Louis.    In  the  fall  of 


iRiniiiiiaivirw 


■  I!;; 

■;iif 

Mini; 


32 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


% 


1809  he  started  for  Washington  to  transact  some  business 
with  the  government,  designing  to  go  also  to  Philadelphia 
and  superintend  the  publication  of  the  journals  of  the 
expedition.  When  he  started  he  was  under  the  influence 
of  one  of  these  attacks  of  melancholia.  A  friend  named 
Xeeley  went  with  him.  They  were  two  days'  journey 
beyond  the  Tennessee  River,  when  the  loss  of  two  horses 
compelled  Nccley  to  halt.  Lewis  went  on  to  the  first 
farm-house,  and  that  night  committed  suicide.  Clarke 
died  September  i,  1838. 

An  imperfect  account  of  the  Lewis  and  Clarke  Expe- 
dition was  published  in  New  York  in  1806,  and  reprinted 
in  London  in  1809.  A  complete  account  prepared  from 
the  journals  of  the  two  leaders,  and  edited  by  Paul  Allen, 
to  which  was  prefixed  the  memoir  by  Jefferson,  was  pub- 
lished in  Philadelphia  in  18 14,  and  in  London  the  same 
year.  Other  editions  appeared  shortly  afterward  in 
London  and  Dublin.  The  book  was  reviewed  by  Robert 
Southcy  in  the  London  Quarterly,  and  attracted  great 
attention  in  Europe.  The  last  American  edition  was 
published  in  New  York  in  1843. 


I'' 

■  ,'1 


llii 


FUR  1 

The  Iludson'i 
Councils  at 
Astor's  Ent 
Continent— 
ville's  Exp; 
Vhg  again 
hinibia — Re 
Indians — 11 
crbocker  M; 

The   grc.' 

century  aiK 

important    ] 

Oldest  of  tl 

in   1670,  wl 

Its  trading 

into  that    v 

the  Pacific 

merchants,  ^ 

niorial  riglit 

and  monopc 

sent  out  frot 

during  the  I 

cargoes  of  m 

furs  accumu 

natives. 

In  1783  th 
trade  alone 
iiij;  the  Prov 
west  Fur  C( 
corporation  ; 
3 


^ 


CHAPTRR  IV. 

FUR  TRADERS,    TRAPPKKS   AND    >[ISSIONARIES. 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company — The  Northwest  Fur  Company — Annual 
Councils  at  the  (irand  Portage — The  Mackinac  Company — John  Jacob 
Astor's  Enterprise — Founding  of  Astoria — A  Perilous  March  Across  the 
Continent — Hudson's  Bay  Company  Posts  and  Trails — Captain  Bonne- 
ville's Expedition — Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth's  Undertaking — The  American 
Flag  again  Planted  in  Oregon — Bonneville's  Two  Journeys  to  the  Co- 
lumbia— Rev.  Samuel  Parker's  Travels — His  Zeal  for  Converting  the 
Indians — His  Prediction  of  a  Pacific  Railroad — Comments  of  the  Knick- 
erbocker Magazine. 

The  great  fur  companies  which  flourished  in  the  last 
century  and  the  early  part  of  the  present,  played  an 
important  part  in  the  exploration  of  the  Northwest. 
Oldest  of  these  was  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  formed 
in  1670,  whose  base  of  operations  was  Hudson's  Bay. 
Its  trading  posts  extended  far  up  the  rivers  flowing 
into  that  vast  body  of  water,  and  ultimately  reached 
the  Pacific  coast.  It  was  an  organization  of  English 
merchants,  who  obtained  from  the  British  Crown  seig- 
niorial rights  over  the  whole  region  north  of  the  Canadas, 
and  monopolized  all  trade  with  the  Indians.  Ships  were 
sent  out  from  London  every  year,  which  entered  the  bay 
during  the  brief  season  when  it  is  free  from  ice,  carrying 
cargoes  of  merchandise  to  the  posts,  and  taking  back  the 
tins  accumulated  during  the  winter  by  barter  with  the 
natives. 

In  1783  the  merchants  of  Canada  engaged  in  a  similar 
trade  along  the  great  lakes  and  in  the  region  now  form.- 
ing  the  Province  of  Manitoba,  and  organized  the  North- 
west Fur  Company,  which  in  time  became  a  powerful 
corporation  and  the  rival  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 
3 


34 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  principal  partners  lived  at  Montreal  or  Quebec  in 
something  like  baronial  rrrandeur.  There  were  junior 
partners  and  agents  who  lived  at  the  Grand  Portage, 
on  Lake  Superior,  and  at  the  posts  on  Lake  Winnipeg, 
the  Red  River,  the  Saskatchewan,  and  other  lakes 
and  water  courses.  Once  every  year  a  conference  was 
held  at  Fort  William,  near  the  Grand  Portage,  to  which 
the  partners  from  Canada  came  in  great  state,  richly 
appareled,  and  with  a  retinue  of  cooks  and  servants,  and 
an  abundance  of  wines  and  delicacies.  '*  Here,"  says 
Irving  in  his  Astoria,  "in  an  immense  wooden  build- 
ing, was  the  great  council-hall,  as  also  the  banqueting 
chamber,  decorated  with  Indian  arms  and  accoutre- 
ments, and  the  trophies  of  the  fur  trade.  The  house 
swarmed  with  traders  and  voyageurs,  some  from  Mon- 
treal bound  to  the  interior  posts  ;  some  from  the  interior 
posts  bound  to  Montreal.  The  councils  were  held  in 
great  state,  for  every  member  felt  as  if  sitting  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  every  retainer  and  dependent  looked  up  to 
the  assemblage  with  awe,  as  to  the  Plouse  of  Lords. 
There  was  a  vast  deal  of  sol''mn  deliberation  and  hard 
Scotch  reasoning,  with  an  occasional  swell  of  pompous 
declamation. 

"These  grave  and  weighty  councils  were  alternated  by 
huge  feasts  and  revels,  like  some  of  the  old  feasts  de- 
scribed in  Highland  castles.  The  tables  in  the  great 
banqueting  room  groaned  under  the  weight  of  game  of  i  I 
all  kinds ;  of  venison  from  the  woods  and  fish  from  the 
lakes,  with  hunters'  delicacies,  such  as  buffaloes'  tongues 
and  beavers'  tails,  and  various  luxuries  from  Montreal, 
all  served  up  by  experienced  cooks  brought  for  the  pur- 
pose. There  was  no  stint  of  generous  wine,  for  it  was  ;i 
hard  drinking  period,  a  time  of  loyal  toast?  and  baccha- 
nalian songs  and  brimming  bumpers. 

"  While  the  chiefi  thus  reveled  in  hall,  and  made  tlic 


FUR    TRADERS,   TRAPPERS  AND  MISSIONARIES. 


35 


jtro- 
ouse 
/lon- 
crior 
d  ill 
.rlia- 
p  to 
)rds. 
luiid 

DOUS 

d  by 
dc- 
rcat 

He  of 

the 
Igucs 
real, 
vill- 
as a 
cha- 


th 


iC 


rafters  resound  with  bursts  of  loyalty  and  old  Scotch 
songs,  chanted  in  voices  cracked  and  sharpened  by  the 
northern  blast,  their  merriment  was  echoed  and  pro- 
longed by  a  mongrel  legion  of  retainers — Canadian 
voyageurs,  half-breeds,  Indian  hunters,  and  vagabond 
hangers-on,  who  feasted  sumptuously  without  on  the 
crumbs  that  fell  from  the  table  and  made  the  welkin 
ring  with  old  French  ditties,  mingled  with  Indian  yelps 
and  yellings." 

Pushing  their  posts  steadily  northward  year  by  year, 
the  Northwest  Company  invaded  the  domain  claimed  by 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  A  controversy  arose  be- 
tween the  two  powerful  organizations  which  lasted  for  ten 
years,  and  was  characterized  by  many  acts  of  violence  and 
wrong.  It  was  ended  at  last  by  the  consolidation  of  the 
two  corporations  under  the  name  of  the  older  one  i-    ^821. 

I       For  a  long  time  the   Northwest  Company  conii.  lied 

'  the  fur  trade  on  the  American  side  of  the  boundary  west 
of  Lake  Superior,  as  well  as  on  the  British  side  ;  its  influ- 
ence extending  as  far  west  as  the  Red  River  of  the  North, 
and  embracing  most  of  the  territory  within   the  limits  of 

I  the  present  State  of  Minnesota.  Another  Canadian  Com- 
l)an}-,  called  the  Mackinac  Company,  sent   its  canoes  and 

I  pirogues  by  Green  Bay,  Fox  River  and  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  Mississippi.  Congress  finally  interfered  in 
1816  to  put  a  stop  to  the  operations  of  these  foreign  com- 
panies on  American  soil. 

In  1807,  John  Jacob  Astor,  a  German  by  birth,  who 
came  to  New  York  in  1784  to  engage  in  the  fur  trade, 
bought  out  the  Mackinac  Company  and  formed  a  new 
association,  called  the  American  Fur  Company,  which 
carried  on  the  traffic  in  the  Upper  Mississippi  country 
and  on  Lake  Superior.  Encouraged  by  the  action  of 
Congress  shutting  out  foreigners  from  the  trade,  Mr. 
Astor  organized  the  Pacific  Fur  Company  in   18 10,  and 


36 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


dispatched  two  parties  to  establish  a  trading  post  at  the 
moutli  of  the  Columbia  River,  one  going  by  sea  and  one 
by  land.  The  sea  expedition  sailed  from  New  York  in 
the  ship  Tonquin  on  the  8th  of  September,  1810,  and  on 
the  22d  of  March,  181 1,  arrived  safely  at  its  destination 
and  founded  the  town  of  Astoria.  T.ic  land  expedition 
encountered  terrible  hardships,  and  lost  a  number  of  its 
men  on  the  march  across  the  continent  by  death  from 
famine  and  fatigue,  or  from  accidents.  Its  leader  was 
Wilson  P.  Hunt,  of  Trenton,  N.  J.,  one  of  the  part- 
ners of  the  company,  and  associated  with  him  were 
Donald  McKenzic,  another  of  the  partners,  Ramsay 
Crooks,  John  Day,  a  Virginia  hunter,  from  whom  the 
John  Day  River  in  Oregon  got  its  name,  and  a  num- 
ber of  other  hardy  pioneers,  American  and  Canadian. 
The  expedition  was  organized  in  Montreal  in  1808, 
where  a  force  of  Canadian  vovagcurs  was  engaged.  At 
Mackinac,  reached  by  the  usual  canoe  and  portage  route 
of  the  Ottawa  River  and  Georgian  Bay,  the  force  was 
reorganized.  It  crossed  from  Green  Bay  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi by  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  Rivers,  and  arrived  at 
St.  Louis  on  the  3d  of  September.  Winter  was  too  close 
at  hand  to  make  much  progress  that  year,  and  the 
party,  filling  three  boats,  only  made  450  miles  on  their 
way  up  the  Missouri  before  going  into  winter  quarters. 
When  the  voyage  was  resumed  in  the  spring  of  1809 
the  party  numbered  sixty  persons.  The  intention 
was  to  follow  closely  the  route  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,  but 
when  near  the  liig  IkMid  of  the  Missouri,  Mr.  Hunt  was 
dissuaded  from  keeping  on  up  the  river  by  news  of  the 
hostility  of  the  Blackfeet  Indians.  So  the  expedition 
abandoned  its  boats,  and  buying  horses  of  the  Sioux 
Indians,  set  out  overland.  The  Rocky  Mountains  were 
crossed  near  the  sources  of  the  Big  Horn  and  Wind 
Rivers,  and  the  head-waters  of  the  Snake  were  reached 


FUR    TRADERS,   TRAPPERS  AND  MISSIONARIES.      37 


in  September.  There  the  party  found  Mr.  Henry,  a 
trapper  for  the  Missouri  Fur  Company,  who  had  been 
driven  from  the  Upper  Missouri  by  the  Blackfeet. 
Canoes  were  built  and  the  party  floated  down  the 
Snake  for  about  five  hundred  miles,  when  they  found 
the  river  so  encumbered  with  rocks  and  rapids,  and  so 
hemmed  in  by  precipices,  that,  after  losing  one  canoe 
with  its  occupants,  they  determined  to  pursue  their  way 
on  foot.  Starvation  soon  threatened  them,  and  they 
divided  into  three  parties  for  better  chance  of  finding 
subsistence  by  hunting  or  from  bands  of  hospitable 
Indians.  After  intense  suffering  in  the  deserts  west  of 
Snake  River,  the  survivors,  including  all  the  leaders 
of  the  expedition,  reached  the  Columbia,  and  follow- 
ing its  course  arrived  at  Astoria.  Hunt's  expedition  was 
the  second  body  of  white  men  to  cross  the  continent 
between  the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia.  Its  exploits 
and  privations  were  worthily  put  into  literature  by  Wash- 
ington Irving  in  his  Astoria.  Mr.  Astor's  fur-trading 
enterprise  on  the  Columbia  ended  disastrously.  His 
partners  betrayed  it  to  the  Northwest  Company  and 
sold  its  post  at  Astoria  and  another  established  on  the 
Upper  Columbia  to  that  corporation.  The  war  of  181 2 
began  immediately  afterward  and  British  ships  took 
possession  of  Astoria  in  18 14.  The  treaty  of  peace  left 
the  question  of  the  ownership  of  Oregon  unsettled,  and' 
threw  the  country  open  for  ten  years  to  the  joint  occu- 
pancy of  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  both  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Astor  did  not  renew  his 
efforts  in  that  quarter,  and   the   Columbia  was  added   to 

1     the  domain  of  the  Northwest  Company  and  held  by  it 
and  its  old  rival  and  successor  until  American  settlement 

I    tinally  forced  a  decision  of  the  boundary  question,  and 

4    Captain  Gray's  log-book  gave  two  future  States  to  the 

}    (jreat  Republic. 


38 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  hardy  French  voyageurs  in  the  employ  of  the 
Northwest  Company  used  to  make  regular  trips  across 
the  continent,  starting  from  Vancouver  on  the  Columbia, 
the  headquarters  of  the  company  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
early  in  April,  threading  the  rivers  and  lakes,  portag- 
ing over  the  mountains  and  divides,  and  reachint; 
Fort  William  on  Lake  Superior  about  the  first  of  July, 
Returning,  they  would  be  back  on  the  Lower  Columbia 
by  the  end  of  October.  With  these  courageous  scouts 
and  skirm'shers  of  the  army  of  commerce  went  the 
Jesuil  missionaries,  making  their  homes  among  the  Indian 
tribes  and  setting  up  \heir  altars  in  the  forests  and  on 
the  verdant  prairies  and  by  the  shores  of  half-known 
lakes  and  rivers.  The  eastern  limit  of  the  region  left 
open  to  the  joint  occupancy  of  British  subjects  and 
American  citizens  was  not  accurately  defined,  and  the 
excellent  organization  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
enabled  it  practically  to  take  possession  of  the  whole 
country  between  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  sources  of  the 
Missouri.  From  the  headquarters  of  the  company  at 
Vancouver,  on  the  Lower  Columbia,  parties  were  sent 
out  to  establish  posts  in  the  interior  and  to  open  s^^ations 
among  the  Indians  connected  by  trails,  canoe  routes 
and  portages.  One  important  post  was  maintained 
at  Walla  Walla,  another  at  Fort  Colville,  another 
on  the  Spokane  River,  another  on  the  Koutenai 
River.  Log  huts  were  built  on  the  trails  for  the 
shelter  of  carriers  and  trappers.  These  roadside  inns 
had  no  landlords.  Every  one  was  free  to  make  use 
of  their  accommodations,  which  consisted  only  of  four 
walls,  a  roof  and  a  fire-place.  In  the  meantime  the  Ameri- 
can fur  companies,  whose  headquarters  were  at  St.  Louis, 
had  established  posts  on  the  Upper  Missouri  and  on  the 
Green  River  Valley,  and  carried  on  trapping  and  barter 
for  furs  on  the  Eastern  shores  of  the  RockyMountains. 


and  made 


FUR    TRADERS,    TRAPPERS  AND  MISSIONAR/ES.      39 


The  next  notable  overland  expedition  which  passed 
over  some  portion  of  the  route  now  traversed  by  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  and  aideJ  to  make  known  to 
the  world  the  features  of  the  Northwest,  was  that  of 
Captain  Bonneville,  whose  adventures  were  graphically 
described  by  Washington  Irving.  Bonneville  was  an 
officer  in  the  United  States  army,  who,  in  1832,  got 
leave  of  absence  to  organize  a  party  of  hunters  and 
trappers  and  cross  the  continent  to  the  Columbia  River. 
The  expedition  had  a  commercial  motive,  being  sup- 
ported by  a  number  of  New  York  merchants,  though 
the  object  of  its  leader  was  rather  travel  and  adven- 
tui  than  profit.  A  force  of  no  men  was  recruited, 
mostly  experienced  frontiersmen,  and  the  party  set 
off  across  the  plains  from  Fort  Osage,  on  th-  Missouri 
River,  on  May  ist.  Travejing  with  wagons  instead  of 
with  pack-horses,  as  all  land  expeditions  which  had 
gone  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains  had  done,  Bonne- 
ville followed  the  course  of  the  Platte  Jliver,  and  reached 
the  mountains  late  in  July.  Crossing  the  divide  he 
felt  some  degree  of  exultation  in  the  thought  that 
his  was  the  first  party  that  had  ever  crossed  north  of 
the  settled  provinces  of  Mexico  from  the  waters  of 
the  Atlantic  to  those  of  the  Pacific  in  wagons.  The 
expedition  established  a  fortified  camp  in  Green  River 
Valley  and  sent  out  hunting  parties.  A  detachment 
was  sent  back  to  the  States  with  furs  by  the  route  of 
the  Big  Morn,  Yellowstone  and  Missouri  Rivers,  in  boats 
made  by  stretching  buffalo  hides  over  frames.  With 
this  party  returned  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth,  who  had  come 
out  from  St.  Louis  with  Captain  Sublette  with  supplies 
for  the  Green  River  post  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Fur 
Company.  Wyeth  was  a  Boston  man  of  great  enterprise 
and  sagacity,  who  afterward  returned  to  the  mountains 
and  made  his  way  to  the  Columbia  River.     He  was  the 


u 


40 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


first  American  after  the  failure  of  the  Astoria  experiment 
to  attempt  a  commercial  enterprise  in  Oregon,  and  lo 
rear  the  American  flag  in  that  region.  He  established  a 
trading  post  on  Wappatoo  Island,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Willamette  River,  then  called  the  Wallamut.  This  he 
named  Fort  Williams,  and  intended  it  to  be  the  head- 
quarters for  fur-trading  operations  in  the  interior  and  for 
salmon-catching  on  the  river.  Wycth  was  the  first  man 
to  appreciate  the  value  of  the  salmon  of  the  Columbia 
as  an  element  of  commerce.  He  designed  to  cure  the 
fish  and  ship  them  cast  by  sea  vith  his  cargoes  of 
furs.  His  bold  and  patriotic  enterpi-ise  came  to  grief 
from  want  of  capital  to  carry  it  on,  and  he  was  forced 
to  sell  his  goods  and  buildings  to  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company. 

Returning  from  this  digression  to  Captain  Bonneville, 
we  find  him,  after  exploring  the  Big  Horn  and  Wind 
River  Mountains  and  dispatching  a  detachment  across 
the  desert  to  the  Mexican  post  of  Monterey,  setting 
off  with  a  few  men,  in  the  spring  of  1833.  for  tlie  Colum- 
bia. He  followed  the  Salmon  River,  a  route  once  sup- 
posed to  be  the  best  for  a  line  of  railroad,  and  got  safely 
to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's  post  at  Walla  Walla  after 
many  perilous  adventures.  Offended  at  the  want  of  hos- 
pitality of  the  officers  at  the  post,  he  started  back  at 
once,  and  reached  his  camp  on  Green  River  before  winter 
set  in. 

The  Monterey  expedition  went  out  for  wool  and 
came  back  shorn.  li  reached  its  destination,  but  the 
men  became  so  enamored  with  the  dissipated  life  of 
the  little  Mexican  town  that  they  spent  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale  of  all  the  furs  they  had  obtained  in  gambling 
and  carousing,  and  returned  the  next  season  empty- 
handed  and  half-starved  to  Bonneville's  headquarters. 
Captain  Bonneville  made  a  second  journey  to  the  Coluni- 


;,J 


FUR    TRADERS,   TRAPPERS  AND  MISSIONARIES.     41 


at 
iter 


CIS. 

nu- 


bia in  1834,  going  by  the  Snake  River  route  part  of 
the-Avay.  Thence  traversing  the  Grand  Ronde  and  Wal- 
lowa Valleys,  and  crossing  the  Blue  Mountains,  he  went 
down  the  Columbia  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  John  Day 
River. 

Disappointed  in  his  hopes  of  opening  trade  with  the 
Indians,  who  were  under  tlic  influence  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  and  refused  supplies  at  the  Walla  Walla 
post.  Captain  Bonneville  had  to  turn  back  to  the  mount- 
ains, where  game  abounded,  to  avoid  starvation.  He 
returned  to  the  States  in  1835,  and  resumed  his  military 
duties.  A  town  on  the  Columbia,  at  the  foot  of  the  Cas- 
cades, bears  his  name. 

Cotemporary  with  Bonneville  and  Wyeth  as  explorers 
of  the  Northwest  was  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker,  a  Presby- 
terian clergyman,  who  was  sent  out  by  a  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Ithaca,  New  York,  to  cross  the  continent  to 
Oregon,  and  report  a  plan  for  Christianizing  the  Indians 
of  the  interior  and  the  Pacific  coast. 

Mr,  Parker,  after  graduating  at  Williams  College,  be- 
came one  of  the  best  known  of  the  liome  misfiionaries  in 
Western  New  York,  doing  itinerant  work  in  that  region. 
Suspending  his  work  to  study  with  the  first  class  that  left 
Andovcr  Seminary,  he  returned  to  his  mission  field,  and 
was  pastor  at  Danby,  N.  Y.,  from  18 12  to  1826.  While 
there  he  married  a  niece  of  Noah  Webster,  the  lexicogra- 
pher, her  father  being  a  Lord,  of  the  Lyme  (Conn.)  stock  ; 
and  it  was  her  intelligence  and  strong  character  that  sec- 
onded his  resolute  enterprise.  His  permanent  home  after- 
ward was  in  Ithaca. 

It  was  in  1833,  while  preaching  in  Middlefield,  Mass., 
that  he  read  an  account  of  the  four  Flathead  Indians 
who,  the  year  before,  came  to  St.  Louis  to  inquire 
about  the  white  man's  God  and  Bible, — one  of  the 
most   remr  kable   pilgrimages    on    record.      Two  of  the 


42 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


four  died  in  that  city.  The  other  two,  in  their  fare- 
well speech  at  the  American  Fur  Company's  quarters, 
expressed  their  great  disappointment  that  they  had 
only  been  entertained  by  gifts,  shows,  and  religious 
ceremonies,  and  had  not  found  the  Light  and  liook  of 
which  they  were  in  quest — a  speech  afterward  repeated 
by  the  one  survivor  to  the  Oregon  missionaries.  That 
speech,  overheard  by  a  clerk  of  the  Fur  Company,  was 
described  by  him  in  a  letter  to  friends,  and  so  found  its 
way  into  print. 

Mr.  Parker  read  the  story,  and  was  fired  with  a  desire 
to  carry  his  religion  to  these  inquiring  red  men  beyond 
the  great  mountains  of  the  West,  although  he  had  reached 
the  age  of  fifty-four.  In  1833  he  offered  his  services  for 
this  purpose  to  the  great  missionary  society  of  his  de- 
nomination, but  met  with  no  encouragement.  Mean- 
while he  removed  to  Ithaca,  and  repeatedly  urged  his 
offer  to  the  same  society,  with  no  result  The  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Ithaca,  however,  listened  to  his 
appeal,  and  resolved  to  undertake  the  whole  expense. 
He  secured  two  helpers,  prepared  his  outfit,  and,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
and  with  a  circular  letter  from  the  United  States  Secre- 
tary of  War,  set  forth,  after  a  solemn  fare  .veil  meeting  at 
the  church. 

By  some  misinformation,  he  was  too  late  at  St.  Louis 
for  that  year's  Fur  Company  caravan,  which,  apparently 
unknown  to  him,  was  accompanied  by  a  Methodist  mis- 
sion under  the  Rev.  Jason  Lee — a  mission  that  after- 
ward did  excellent  work  in  helping  on  the  Christian  civili- 
zation planted  around  it  in  the  fertile  Willamette  Valley, 
whither  immigration  in  after  years  was  directed  by  the 
politic  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Nothing  daunted,  Mr. 
Parker  placed  his  two  companions  as  teachers  among  the 
Pawnees,  returned  home,  enlisted  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman, 


FUR    TRADERS,    TRAPPERS  AXD  MISSIOA'ARIES.     43 


found  a  missionary  wife  for  the  doctor,  and  set  out  again, 
March  14th,  1835. 

He  joined  the  expedition  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, which  left  Liberty,  Mo.,  in  May,  1835,  under 
charge  of  Captain  P'ontanelle,  to  take  suppHes  to  the 
trading  posts  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  caravan 
proceeded  by  way  of  the  Black  Hills  to  the  fort  on 
Green  River,  which  was  a  rendezvous  fr  o  or  three 
hundred  hunters  and  trappers  employed  ■-;  tnc  com- 
pany. There  Dr.  Whitman  turned  back,  Mr.  Parker 
going  on  for  five  days  further  to  the  Salmon  River 
with  a  party  of  hunters  under  Captain  Bridger.  The 
rest  of  the  journey  to  Walla  Walla  he  made  with  no 
other  companions  than  the  kind  and  faithful  Nez  Perces 
Indians  inhabiting  the  country,  and  with  no  peril  save 
from  wandering  war  parties  of  the  always  hostile 
Blackfeet.  From  Walla  Walla,  Mr,  Parker  explored 
the  Palousc  country  and  the  Spokane  country,  and 
visited  P^ort  Colville  on  the  Upper  Columbia,  and  then, 
descending  the  river  to  Astoria,  returned  to  the  At- 
lantic coast  by  sea.  He  wrote  a  book  of  travels,  giv- 
ing very  faithful  descriptions  of  the  country  he  saw, 
and  interesting  accounts  of  t'  c  manners  and  customs 
of  the  Indian  tribes,  which  had  a  large  sale,  and  was 
republished  in  London.  The  courage,  zeal,  and  in- 
telligence displayed  by  this  enterprising  missionary 
deservedly  placed  him  high  on  the  roll  of  famous  Ameri- 
can travelers.  One  sentence  in  his  book  calls  for 
special  mention  here.  He  wrote  in  his  journal,  after 
he  had  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains :  "  There  would 
be  no  difficulty  in  the  way  of  constructing  a  railroad 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  There  is 
no  greater  difficulty  in  the  whole  distance  than  has 
already  been  overcome  in  passing  the  Green  Mount- 
ains  between    Boston    and    Albany ;    and   probably    the 


44 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  tours  will  be 
made  across  the  continent,  as  they  have  been  made 
to  the  Niagara  Falls,  to  see  Nature's  wonders."  Here, 
then,  was  the  first  prophet  of  tho  Pacific  Railway.  Mr. 
Parker  died  in  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  in  1866,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-seven. 

In  a  review  of  Mr.  Parker's  exploring  tour  in  the 
Knickerbocker  Magazine,  June,  1838,  Willis  Gaylord 
Clark  thus  eloquently  described  the  great  transforma- 
tion in  the  far  West,  which,  sooner  than  any  one  then 
anticipated,  has  come  to  pass:  "The  work  will  yet  be 
accomplished !  Let  the  prediction  be  marked.  This 
great  chain  of  communicat'on  will  yet  be  made,  with 
links  of  iron.  The  treasures  of  the  earth  in  that  wide 
region  arc  not  destined  to  be  lost.  The  mountains  of 
coal,  the  vast  meadow  seas,  the  fields  of  salt,  the  mighty 
forests,  w-ith  their  trees  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in 
height,  the  stores  of  magnesia,  the  crystallized  lakes  ot 
valuable  salts  —  these  were  not  formed  to  be  unem- 
ployed and  wasted.  The  reader  is  now  living  who  will 
make  a  railroad  trip  across  this  vast  continent.  The 
granite  mountain  will  melt  before  the  hand  of  enterprise; 
valleys  will  be  raised,  and  the  unwearying  fire-steed 
will  spout  his  hot,  white  breath  where  silence  has  reigned 
since  the  morning  hymn  of  young  creation  was  pealed 
over  mountain,  flood  and  field.  The  mammoth's  bone 
and  the  bison's  horn,  buried  for  centuries,  and  long  since 
turned  to  stone,  will  be  bared  to  the  day  by  the  laborers 
of  the 'Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company*;  rocks 
which  stand  now  as  on  the  night  when  Noah's  deluge 
first  dried  will  heave  beneath  the  action  of  '  villanous 
saltpetre';  and  where  the  prairie  stretches  away,  'like 
the  round  ocean,  girdled  with  the  sky,'  with  its  wood- 
fringed  streams,  its  flower-enameled  turf,  and  its  herds 
of  startled  buffaloes,  will  sweep  the  long  hissing  train  of 


rUK    TRADERS.    TRAPPERS  AND   MISSIONARIES.     45 

c  u's,  crowded  with  passengers  for  the  Pacific  seaboard. 
The  very  rcahns  of  chaos  and  old  night  will  be  invaded ; 
while  in  the  place  of  the  roar  of  wild  beasts,  or  howl 
of  wilder  Indians,  will  be  heard  the  lowing  of  herds, 
the  bleating  of  flocks ;  the  plough  will  cleave  the 
sods  of  ipany  a  rich  valL-y  ^ind  fruitful  hill,  while  'from 
many  a  dark  bosom  shall  go  up  the  pure  prayer  to  the 
Great  Spirit.'  " 


CHAPTER    V. 


MARCUS   WHITMAN  S   HEROIC    RIDE. 


Dr.  Wliitman  and  l\cv.  II.  II.  Spalding  go  to  Oregon  with  tlicir  Wives — 
Sclieincs  of  the  Hudson's  I»ay  Company  to  Secure  Oregon  for  (ircal 
Dritain — Wliitnian's  l)aring  Resolution — He  Starts  with  A.  L.  l.ovejoy 
for  Washington — Perilous  Winter  Journey  across  t!ie  .  Mountains  and 
Plains — Whitman's  Appearance  at  the  State  Department — Oregon  Saved 
to  the  United  States — Whitman  Leads  the  Missouri  Emigration — His 
Tragic  Death. 

Dr.  Marcus  Whitman,  who,  asv.cluivc  seen,  left  Mr. 
Parker  in  the  Rocky  ]\Iountains  to  return  East,  had  no  in- 
tention of  giving  up  the  missionar)-  work  in  Oregon  to 
which  he  had  pledged  himself.  In  1836  he  again  started 
for  the  Pacific  coast,  taking  with  him  his  bride,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Judge  Prentiss,  of  Plattsburg,  N.  Y.,  and  aLso  the 
Rev.  II.  H.  Spalding  and  wife,  and  W.  H.  Gray,  who 
subsequently  wrote  a  valuable  history  of  Oregon.  The  two 
ladies  were  the  first  American  women  to  make  the  over- 
land journey  to  the  Pacific  coast.  They  endurec"  the  fa- 
tigues and  privations  of  3,500  miles  of  travel,  mostly  made 
on  horseback,  with  a  courage  and  fortitude  not  surpassed 
by  any  of  the  men  in  the  part}'.  The  little  expedition 
joined  the  annual  fur  trading  caravan  which  left  the  Mis- 
ouri  River  and  went  as  far  as  Fort  Hall,  in  what  is  now 
Southeastern  Idaho,  then  the  extreme  western  post  of  the 
American  Fur  Company.  From  that  point  Dr.  Whit- 
man and  his  companions,  resisting  the  advice  of  every- 
body at  the  fort,  started  on  with  a  wagon  and  got 
safely  through  to  the  Columbia  Valley.  This  achieve- 
ment was  of  the  greatest  importance  in  its  effect  on  the 
subsequent  emigration  to  Oregon,  proving,  as  it  did,  that 


i 


3 


us 


uc 


)\V 


;     ^ 


it  was  fea 

liold   gooi 

prcviousl} 

except  to 

Company. 

In    183} 

rived   in   i 

Dr.  Whit; 

Walla;  M 

cm  Idaho 

Oregon,  n 

River — an 

Perces  coi 

yond  the  1 

and  book; 

tliere    wer 

missionari 

American 

Tile  c(Mi 

time,  praci 

pany,  who 

treaty  witl 

as  a  mattei 

Mudson's 

their  hold  1 

American 

soon   be    A 

States,  whi 

for  Great  I 

cific  north' 

son,  the   cl 

arrangeme: 

lies   of  En 

the    Red    I 

Manitoba,! 


MARCUS    WHITMAN'S  HEROIC  RIDE. 


47 


it  was  feasible  to  take  families  with  wagons  and  house- 
hold goods  through  to  that  remote  region,  which  had 
previously  been  supposed  to  be  worthless  and  inaccessible, 
except  to  the  hunters  and  trappers  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company. 

In  1838  more  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  ar- 
rived in  Oregon,  and  there  were  now  three  stations — 
Dr.  Whitman's,  twenty-five  miles  east  of  Fort  Walla 
Walla  ;  Mr.  Spalding's,  on  the  Clearwater,  now  in  North- 
c;n  Idaho  ;  Messrs.  Eells  and  Walk.;i's,  in  Northeastern 
Oregon,  now  Washington  Teriitoiy,  near  the  Spokane 
River — and  the  following  year  a  fourth  station,  in  the  Nez 
Perces  country,  in  which  year  the  first  printing-press  be- 
yond the  mountains  was  set  up,  at  the  Spalding  Mission, 
and  books  in  the  Indian  languages  printed.  In  1840 
there  were  in  all  nineteen  clerical  and  thirteen  lay 
missionaries  from  the  United  States,  and  as  many  more 
American  settlers  with  their  families. 

The  control  of  the  whole  Oregon  country  was,  at  this 
time,  practically  in  the  hands  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, who  occupied  it  with  their  trading  posts  under  the 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  which  left  its  ownershii)  open 
as  a  matter  for  future  determination.  The  agents  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  naturally  desirous  of  retaining 
their  hold  upon  the  region,  were  exceedinglyjealous  of  the 
American  misr.ioi;  ries,  fearing  that  their  arrival  would 
soon  be  followed  by  an  extensive  emigration  from  the 
States,  wh"'  \\  would  put  an  end  to  their  plan  of  securing 
for  Great  Britain  the  possession  of  the  whole  of  the  Pa- 
cific northwest.  To  carry  out  this  plan,  Governor  Simp- 
son, the  chief  executive  officer  of  the  Company,  made 
arrangements  in  1842  for  the  transfer  of  some  forty  f.imi- 
lies  of  English,  Scotch,  and  Canadian  half-breeds  from 
the  Reil  River,  or  Selkirk,  settlement,  in  what  is  ?\ow 
Manitoba,  to  the  Puget  Sound  district.     T  .is  large  party 


\ 


48 


NORTHER!^  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


of  emigrants  started  across  the  northern  plains  in  the 
spring  of  1842,  guided  and  protected  by  the  Compan\-. 
They  reached  their  destination,  but  many  of  them  re- 
fused to  remain  in  the  Puget  Sound  region  and  made 
their  way  to  the  Willamette  and  Tualatin  districts. 
Shortly  afterward  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  began 
fortifying  Fort  Vancouver,  and  a  British  war  ship  was 
stationed  in  the  Columbia  River. 

These  measures  caused  great  anxiety  among  the  few 
American  settlers,  who  had  no  thought  when  they  made 
the  perilous  journey  to  the  Pacific  coast  that  they  were 
putting  themselves  in  the  way  of  becoming  subjects  of 
Great  Britain.  Apparently  their  own  government  had 
forgotten  them  and  was  ready  to  yield  to  the  pressure  of 
diplomacy  at  Washington  and  turn  their  country  over  to 
the  permanent  rule  of  the  English  crown.  The  heart  of 
Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  was  greatly  moved  by  this  con- 
dition of  affairs,  and  he  determined  to  go  to  Washington 
and  present  the  claims  of  the  Oregon  settlers  to  the 
President  and  Secretary  of  State.  Winter  was  close  at 
hand,  and  the  chances  were  all  against  his  safely  getting 
across  the  snow-covered  mountains  and  frozen  plains  of 
the  vast  interior,  but  he  did  not  hesitate.  He  communi- 
cated his  project  to  one  friend,  A.  L.  Lovejoy,  who,  with 
a  devotion  equal  to  his  own,  offered  to  be  his  compan- 
ion. These  two  men  left  the  missionary  station  of  Wail- 
atpu,  on  October  3,  1842,  with  no  supplies  save  what 
they  could  carry  on  their  saddles.  After  leaving  Fort 
Hall  they  met  with  terribly  severe  weather,  and  snow 
greatl)'  retarded  their  progress  ;  often  they  were  obliged 
to  take  shelter  for  days  in  dee})  ravines  on  account  of  the 
bliiuling  fury  of  the  storm.  They  bore  off  to  the  south 
in  order  to  cross  the   mountains  in  a  milder  climate,  ami 


reached   (irand   River,  which  was  froze 


n  on   ci 


th 


er  side       i-i 


about  one-third  across.  They  forced  their  horses  into  the 


MARCUS    WHITMAN'S  HEROIC   RIDE. 


49 


I 


icy  current  and  safely  reached  the  other  shore.  After  thirty 
days'  travelinjT  they  arrived  at  Taos,  New  Mexico,  having 
subsisted  r.ainly  on  the  flesh  of  such  animals  as  they 
could  kill.  Resting  at  Taos  a  few  days  and  changing 
their  jaded  horses  they  set  off  for  Bent's  Fort,  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Arkansas,  where  they  arrived  on  January  3, 
1843.  Mr.  Lovejoy  remained  at  the  fort  and  Dr.  Whitman 
pushed  on  to  Washington  by  way  of  St.  Louis,  taking 
care  to  spread  the  news  through  the  frontier  settlements 
of  Missouri  that  Oregon  was  in  danger  of  being  wrested 
from  the  American  Union,  and  that  he  would  return  the 
next  spring  to  lead  a  party  of  emigrants  across  the  plains 
for  its  rescue. 

A  few  weeks  later  an  awkward,  tall,  sparc-visaged, 
weather-beaten  man,  dressed  in  a  blanket  coat  and  buck- 
skin trousers,  which  showed  by  many  scorched  spots  that 
the  wearer  had  been  compelled  to  lie  down  close  by  camp 
fires  to  keep  himself  from  freezing  to  death,  walked  into 
the  State  Department  in  Washington.  This  man  was  Dr. 
Whitman,  the  heroof  the  winter  ride  across  the  continent. 
His  hands  and  ears  were  frost-bitten,  and  he  had  es- 
caped death  by  what  seemed  to  his  j)iousmind  a  special 
interposition  of  Providence.  He  had  reached  his  goal, 
however,  and  Oregon  was  saved  to  the  American  Rrpublic. 
The  representations  of  a  man  of  such  courage  iind  self- 
sacrificing  patriotism  made  a  jirofound  impression  on  the 
minds  of  President  Tyler  and  Daniel  Webster,  his  Secre- 
tary of  State.  Tlie  government  changed  its  attitude  in 
the  negotiations  relating  to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the 
treaty  soon  afterward  made  with  Great  Britain  confirmed 
to  the  United  States  all  the  territory  now  embraced  in 
llie  State  of  Oregon  and  the  future  State  of  \\  ashington. 
The  following  spring  Dr.  Whitman  left  Independence, 
Mo.,  on  his  return  to  Oregon,  accompanied  by  a  large 
emigrant    train   of   adventurous  frontiers-men  and  their 


50 


NORTHER!^  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


families,  protected  by  a  military  escort  furnished  by  the 
government.  They  traveled  in  wagons  and  arrived 
without  serious  mishap  in  the  Willamette  Valley. 

This  true  hero,  whose  exploits,  had  they  occurred  in  a 
less  prosaic  age,  would  have  been  the  theme  of  song  and 
story,  met  with  a  tragic  fate.  He  was  murdered  in  1847 
by  the  very  Indians  to  whom  he  had  faithfully  ministered 
as  a  physician  and  a  Christian  teacher,  instigated,  it  was 
alleged  at  the  time,  by  the  hostility  of  the  Jesuits  toward 
all  Protestant  missionaries.  A  monument  of  Whitman 
and  a  county,  town  and  college  named  after  him  show 
the  appreciation  in  which  his  memory  is  held  by  the 
people  of  the  Columbia  Valley.  He  was  born  at  Rush- 
ville,  N.  Y.,  in  18 10  and  was  practicing  medicine  at 
Wheeler  in  that  State  when  enlisted  as  a  missionary  by 
Samuel  Parker. 


the 
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Karly  Argumc 
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person  t(i 
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of  the  first 
wTiS  great 
mode  of  tr 
the   saiigu 
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continent  ' 
credit   for 
but  credit 
advocated 
immediate 
and  advani 
Samuel    B, 
in  Crranvil 
eminiMit   ^ 
as  1834  to 
the  [^runera 
a  railroad  f 
l)ia  River. 
and  Ills  ne' 
^ear.s.    He 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE    FIRST    ]'A(T|-I(:    RAILROAD    ADVOCATK. 

Early  Arguments  in  Favor  of  a  Railroatl  to  tlic  Tacific  Coa^t — Dr.  Samuel 
Bancroft  Barlow's  Newspaper  Articles — A  Scheme  for  a  Railroad  from 
New  York  to  the  Mouth  of  tin;  (Columbia — Estimated  Cost — The  Gov- 
cniniont  Urged  to  Undertake  the  Work — Kfiecl  on  East  India  Trade. 

I  r  woukl  be  impossible  to  ascertain  who  was  tb.e  first 
person  to  sugj^est  tlve  practicability  or  desirability  of  a 
railroad  to  the  Pacific  coast.  Xo  doubt  tlie  idea  occurred 
to  many  thoui^dUful  people  about  the  time  of  the  buikling 
of  the  first  railroads  in  the  .Atlantic  coast  States.  There 
\v.;i  threat  enthusiasm  then  over  the  success  of  the  new 
mode  of  transportation,  and  it  would  only  be  natural  for 
the  san<^uine  and  enterprising  to  predict  that  the  day 
would  come,  sooner  or  later,  when  tlic  two  shores  of  the 
continent  would  b-:  joined  by  the  iron  rail.  No  special 
credit  for  foresi;^ht  would  attach  to  such  a  prediction, 
but  credit  is  certainly  due  to  the  man  who  first  publicly 
advocated  a  Pacific  railroad  as  a  scheme  which  should  be 
immediately  carried  out,  and  carefully  estimated  the  cost 
and  advantages.  That  man  is  believed  to  have  been  Dr. 
Samuel  l^ancroft  Ikxrlow,  a  practicing  physician  living 
in  (iranville,  Mass.,  father  of  S.  L.  M.  l^arlow,  now  an 
eminent  New  York  lawyer.  Dr.  Rarlow  began  as  early 
a^  1834  to  write  articles  for  the  newspapers  in  favor  of 
the  general  government  undertaking  the  construction  of 
a  railroad  from  New  York  city  to  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia River.  He  kept  up  his  active  interest  in  the  subject, 
and  his  newspaper  contributions  were  continuei!  for  many 
>  ears.    He  died  iniS/C.  Among  his  papers  was  found,  after 

51 


52 


NORTHER X  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


liis  death,  an  article  published  iu  the  Intelligencer,  a 
weekly  journal  printed  in  Wcstficld,  Mass.  The  exact 
date  of  its  appearance  cannot  be  ascertained,  but  the 
reference  it  contains  to  Michigan  as  a  Territory,  shows 
that  it  was  written  prior  to  1837,  the  year  when  that 
State  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  the  statement  that 
"  two  or  three  years  more  will  suffice  to  extinguish  the 
public  debt,"  fixes  its  date  as  before  1835,  when  the  Fed- 
eral debt  was  wholly  paid.  Evidently  the  article  was 
written  as  early  as  1834,  and  perhaps  in  1833,  '^^^^  t''<-' 
articles  in  a  Michigan  paper  to  which  it  refers  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  called  out  by  others  previously 
written  by  him.     The  article  in  question  is  as  follows: 


"  I'or  the  Intelligencer. 
"  Mr.  Editor: 

"  An  able  writer  in  the  Emigrant,  a  paper  published 
in  Washtenaw  Co.,  Michigan  Territory,  in  a  series  of  num- 
bers, of  which  it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  see  only  the  first, 
is  endeavoring  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the 
scheme  of  uniting  the  City  of  New  York  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  (Oregon)  River,  on  the  Pacific  Ocean  in 
about  46  degrees  N.  Lat.,  by  a  railroad,  and  also 
endeavoring  by  facts  and  arguments  to  prove  the  utility 
and  practicability  of  the  project. 

"The  writer  assumes  that  the  length  of  the  road  would 
be  about  3,000  miles,  which  would  be  near  the  truth  ;  the 
average  cost  of  the  road  $10,000  per  mile,  which  I  believe 
would  be  more  than  the  average  cost  for  constructing  it 
through  such  parts  of  the  country  as  are  fully  settled ; 
but  when  we  come  to  the  limits  of  settlement  at  the  West, 
and  go  on  to  push  forwanl  such  a  work  beyond  the 
limits  (I  would  say  the  extreme  limits),  of  settlement  it 
is  to  be  presumed,  indeed  it  is  certain,  the  construction 
of  a  good  railroad  cannot  be  accomplished  for  $10,000 


THE  FIRST  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  ADVOCATE. 


53 


per  mile.  Three  thousand  miles  at  an  average  cost 
of  $10,000  per  mile  gives  as  a  total  cost  thirty  mill- 
ions of  dollars  ($30,000,000),  a  sum  by  no  means 
inconsiderable,  but  yet  a  sum  which  the  United  States 
can  pay  in  six  years  or  even  in  three  years  without 
over  feeling  it.  Indeed,  were  the  expense  the  only  obsta- 
cle in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment,  and  were  the 
United  States  to  engage  in  it,  three  years'  time  would  be 
ampl}'  sufficient,  if  not  to  perform  the  whole  work,  yet 
to  pay  the  whole  thirty  millions  of  money. 

"  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  our  government  (thanks  to  the 
wisdom  which  guides  it)  pays  on  an  average,  of  the  pub- 
lic debt  (National  debt)  twelve  or  thirteen  millions  of 
dollars  annually,  and  it  is  calculated  that  two  or  three  years 
will  suffice  to  extinguish  that  debt. 

"  Now,  Mr.  I-lditor,  I  have  a  method  to  propose  by  which 
this  work  can  be  accomplished  by  our  general  govern- 
ment at  the  expense  of  the  Union,  and  that,  too,  by  a  way 
in  which  the  people  of  a  widely  extended,  rich,  prosperous 
and  happy  country  would  never  feel  one  cent  the  poorer. 
It  is  simply  this  :  Let  preliminary  measures  be  taken  for 
three  years  to  come,  such  as  making  examinations,  sur- 
veys, levels,  estimates,  &c.,  &c.,  at  the  end  of  which  time, 
the  public  debt  being  paid,  the  National  Treasury  over- 
flowing (I  would  premise  also  that  the  present  duties 
and  taxes,  indeed  every  source  of  revenue,  be  continued 
at  their  present  rates)  then  let  the  work  proceed  with  all 
possible  and  prudent  speed  and  vigor,  to  a  speedy  and 
perfect  completion,  and  let  six,  eight,  ten,  twelve  or  fif- 
teen millions  of  dollars  of  the  public  money  be  appro- 
priated to  defray  the  expense  annually  until  it  is  finished. 
What  a  glorious  undertaking  for  the  United  States!  The 
greatest  public  work,  I  mean  the  greatest  in  its  ends  and 
utilities  that  mortal  man  has  ever  yet  accomplished;  a 
work  in  its  extent,  and  in  the  difficulty  of  accomplishment, 


54 


NORTHER X  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


only  to  be  measured  by  the  enterprise  of  Americans  and 
by  their  ability  to  perform  it. 

"There  is  not  the  least  doubt,  sir,  of  the  entire  prac- 
ticability of  the  undertaking,  nor  is  there  in  our  whole 
countr)',  sir,  a  well-informed  man  who  will  not  at  once, 
on  a  fair  examination  of  the  plan  and  of  the  stupendous 
results  and  benefits  which  would  flow  to  our  countr\',  to 
our  whole  country,  from  the  operation  of  the  road  when 
completed,  concede  that  the  road,  in  the  effects  it  will 
produce,  in  the  beneficial  results  which  it  will  procure  to 
our  commercial  and  manufacturing^  interests,  and  in  fine, 
to  every  one  of  the  great  enriching  interests  of  the  countr\-, 
will  ultimately  a  thousand  times  pay  for  itself  and  be  ;i 
source  of  almost  countless  revenue  to  the  Country. 

"To  state  but  two  or  three  particulars:  ;\t  the  very 
moderate  rate  often  miles  an  hour,  a  man  would  go  from 
New  York  to  the  Columbia  River  in  twelve  days  aiul 
a  half;  con:;equently  he  might  go  there,  transact  busi- 
ness, visit  friends,  examine  the  country  and  be  in  New- 
York  again  in  one  month.  Time  and  space  would  seem 
to  be  annihilated.  It  would  be  the  great  thoroughfare 
for  emigration  and  the  transportation  of  merchandise  of 
every  description.  The  ports  of  New  York  on  the  Atlan- 
tic and  of  Astoria  on  the  Pacific  would  seem  to  be  brought 
together  as  neighbors ;  the  rates  of  transportation 
would  be  low  and  yet  profitable  ;  the  settlement  of  the 
great  West  would  proceed  with  unwonted  pace  ;  the  East 
and  the  West  and  finally  every  section  of  the  country 
would  be  bound  together  by  stronger  ties  of  common 
interest ;  the  rich  furs  and  other  noble  products  of  the 
North  and  West  would  find  a  ready  passage  to  the  con- 
sumers in  the  Atlantic  States,  while  the  products  of 
Eastern  manufacture  would  find  in  equally  ready  way  to 
their  ever  welcome  destination  at  the  cabins  of  our 
brethren  of  the  West.     Again,  it  would  change  almost  at 


THE  FIRST  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  ADVOCATE. 


55 


once  the  mode  of  East  India  voyages.  Tlic  ports  and 
Islands  of  the  East  Indies  would  lie  almost  at  our  doors. 
Our  merchants  then,  instead  of  tedious  and  unhealthy 
voyages  to  the  Indies  by  the  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
and  St.  Helena,  in  a  latitude  where  disease  and  tempest 
alike  conspire  to  render  a  voyage  anything  but  safe  or  de- 
sirable, would  make  that  voyage  by  the  way  of  the  Rocky 
[Mountains  and  the  mouth  of  the  Oregon.  From  the 
mouth  of  the  Oregon  to  the  trading  ports  of  the  East 
Iiniies  would  be,  as  I  suppose,  from  five  to  seven  thousand 
miles,  and  that,  too,  a  good  part  of  the  way  in  a  latitude 
where  the  weather  would  be  temperate,  the  air  healthful 
ami  not  surcharged  with  the  elements  of  disease  and 
death. 

"  The  general  course  of  the  road  from  New  York 
would  be  to  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  and  along 
the  south  shore  of  that  lake.  This  project,  visionary, 
chimerical,  yea  more  than  Quixotic,  as  it  may  now  seem, 
will  be  accomplished,  so  sure  as  our  nation  goes  on  in 
the  march  of  greatness  and  improvement  for  some  few 
years  to  come,  as  it  has  done  for  twenty  years  past.  It 
will  be  accomplished,  for  the  wants  and  exigencies  of  the 
country  will  rec[uire  it  and  most  imperiously  demand  it. 
Since  the  completion  of  the  Eric  Canal,  Americans  seem 
to  think,  examine  and  judge  for  themselves  what  their 
wants  are  in  the  matter  of  canals  and  railroads,  and  to 
know  that  their  wants  can  be  supplied. 

"  My  feeble  pen  would  fail  me  to  expatiate  on  the  sub- 
stantial time-enduring  glory  which  would  redound  to  our 
nation,  should  it  engage  in  this  stupendous  undertaking. 
The  work  itself  would  be  a  monument  of  a  country's 
^ML-atness,  both  in  design  and  in  execution — a  monument 
not  like  the  mighty  Pyramids — useless;  but  a  monument 
w  hose  usefulness  would  be  attested  in  the  innumerable 
blessings,  and  the  more  than   countless   riches  which  it 


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56 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


would  pour  upon  our  happy  Republic.  The  v  ork  will  be 
done,  and  should  you,  sir,  and  I  live  to  the  good  age  of 
sixty  years,  we  shall  live  to  see  it  accomplished,  and  to 
see  a  faint  prospect  of  the  riches  and  the  glory  which  it 
will  ultimately  confer  on  a  great  and  magnanimous  peo- 
ple. Happy  shall  be  he  whose  lot  it  maybe  to  live  in  the 
time  of  the  completion  of  this  grand  scheme,  and  thrice 
happy  he  whose  good  destiny  it  shall  be  to  preside  over 
this  great  nation,  and  under  whose  auspices  a  work  of 
such  mighty  moment  shall  be  begun  and  carried  to  its 
completion." 

Thus  it  appears  that  while  Samuel  Parker,  the  daring 
missionary,  was  writing  in  the  heart  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains that  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  the  way  of  con- 
structing a  railroad  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  actually  predicting  the  opening  of  such  a  line,  Dr. 
Barlow  in  his  retired  home  in  a  Massachusetts  village  was 
writing  articles  in  the  newspapers  urging  Congress  to 
undertake  the  immediate  building  of  the  road.  Perhaps 
there  were  earlier  advocates  of  a  Pacific  Railway  than 
Dr.  Barlow,  but,  if  so,  the  author  of  this  volume  has  not 
been  able  to  identify  them,  and  therefore  accords  to  him 
the  first  place.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  northern 
route  was  the  only  one  contemplcted  by  Barlow.  The 
valley  route  by  way  of  the  Missouri  and  Columbia 
rivers  seemed  to  him,  as  to  the  writers  on  the  subject 
who  followed  him,  the  route  marked  out  by  nature. 


wmamaamamKimmfimamm 


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the  points 


CHAPTER  VII. 


ASA  Whitney's  project. 

Whitney's  Early  Career — lie  Ascends  the  Missouri — Study  of  a  Short  Route 
to  China — His  Scheme  fi)r  a  Railroad  from  Lake  Michii^an  to  the  Mouth 
of  the  Columbia — Efforts  in  Washington — Favorable  Resolutions  Secured 
from  State  Legislatures — Whitney  Mobbed  in  New  York — A  Friendly 
Reception  in  Philadelphia — Whitney's  Bill  Defeated — Another  Unsuc- 
cessful Effort  in  1849 — Whitney  Dies  Poor — The  Chicago  and  St.  Louis 
Conventions  of  1849 — George  Wilkes'  project — Plans  of  J.  Loughborougli 
and  Dr.  Ilartwell  Carver. 

AsA  Whitney  has  generally  been  rcgprdcd  as  the  first 
projector  of  a  railway  to  the  Pacific  coast.  He  was,  in 
fact,  the  first  man  to  put  the  idea  into  practical  shape, 
and  to  urge  it  upon  the  attention  of  Congress.  We  have 
seen,  in  the  previous  chapter,  that  -Dr.  Barlow  discussed 
the  question  in  the  newspapers  as  early  as  1834.  Whitney 
did  not  begin  his  movement  until  about  ten  years  later. 
Possibly  he  had  never  heard  of  the  village  physician  of 
"\ycstcrn  Massachusetts  and  his  articles  in  the  newspapers, 
but  it  is  more  than  probable  that  a  great  idea  so  intel- 
ligently presented  and  so  assiduously  advocated  as  was 
tliat  of  a  government  railroad  to  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia by  Dr.  Barlow,  did  not  die  out  in  the  period  of  active 
railway  construction  in  the  Atlantic  States  which  fol- 
lowed his  first  publications,  and  that  Whitney  had 
seen  the  project  spoken  of  in  print  before  he  undertook 
its  championship.  At  all  events,  he  used  substantially 
the  same  arguments  that  had  been  employed  by  Barlow. 

Whitney  returned  to  New  York  in  1844  from  China, 
where  he  had  lived  a  number  of  years.  He  was  familiar 
with  the  conditions  of  the  China  and  East  India  trade, 
and  carefully  calculating  the  distances  from  Liverpool  to 
the  points  where  that  trade  centered,  found  that  a  route 

57 


58 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


across  the  United  States  by  rail,  and  by  sea  from 
Pugct  Sound,  would  be  considerably  shorter  tlian  tlic 
all-sea  route  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In  1845, 
with  a  company  of  young  gentlemen  from  different  States, 
he  ascended  the  Missouri  River  for  1,500  miles.  Return- 
ing, he  appeared  in  Washington,  in  December,  with  a 
magnificent  scheme  for  a  railroad  from  Lake  Michigan  to 
the  Pacific  coast,  to  be  built  by  him  with  the  proceeds  of 
a  grant  of  lands  for  thirty  miles  on  each  side  of  the  track. 
He  got  little  for  his  pains,  at  first,  but  ridicule;  but  he 
was  not  a  man  to  be  put  down  by  sneers  and  laughter. 
He  believed  thoroughly  in  his  project,  and  soon  made 
others  believe  in  it.  A  great  talker  in  public  and  private, 
eloquent,  earnest,  and  well  equipped  with  convincing 
statistics  and  forcible  arguments,  he  returnerl  to  the 
charge  in  1846,  and  in  1847  got  a  favorable  report  from 
the  Senate  Committee  on  Public  Lands. 

About  this  time  Whitney  began  to  work  upon  pub- 
lic sentiment  through  the  means  of  meetings,  and 
also  labored  to  obtain  resolutions  of  indorsement  from 
State  Legislatures.  He  traversed  the  whole  country 
from  Maine  to  the  Mississippi,  talking  to  Legislatures, 
Boards  of  Trade,  and  mass  meetings,  and  rarely  failin:; 
to  get  the  commendation  he  sought.  He  wanted  no 
money  and  no  stock  subscriptions.  If  Congress  would 
give  him  the  land  he  would  build  the  road.  The  object 
of  his  journeys  and  speeches  was  to  organize  and  bring  to 
bear  a  pressure  of  public  opinion  upon  Congress.  In 
this  he  was  remarkably  successful.  In  1847  '^•i<J  1848  he 
obtained  favorable  resolutions  from  one  or  both  branches 
of  the  Legislatures  of  Maine,  N<"w  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Maryland,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  and  Georgia,  and  also  from  public  meetings 
addressed  by  him  in  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati, 


J^A    IF///T.V£V'S  PROJECT. 


59 


la 


IiulianapoHs,  St.  Louis,  Louisville,  and  many  other  cities. 
The  only  place  where  he  was  unsuccessful  was  New 
York.  He  addressed  a  large  meeting  in  the  Tabernacle 
on  January  4th,  1847,  or  rather  he  tried  to  address  it. 
The  Mayor  presided.  The  vice-presidents  named  in  the 
newspaper  account  published  next  day  were  Mr.  Tileston, 
a  rich  merchant  and  shipowner;  Mr.  Spofford,  his  partner; 
C.  King,  J.  1^  Phoenix,  a  prominent  lawyer,  and  Prosper 
M.  Wctmore,  a  leading  politician.  The  Courier  and 
Enquirer,  then  the  chief  newspaper  of  the  city,  began  its 
report  of  the  affair  as  follows:  "The  public  meeting  ad- 
vertised to  be  held  in  the  Tabernacle  last  evening,  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  of  the  expediency  of  commending 
to  the  consideration  of  Congress  the  projected  railroad  to 
the  Pacific,  was  turned  into  a  bear  garden  tumult  by  a 
packed  party  of  Agrarians,  National  Reformers,  Fourier- 
itcs,  etc.,  who  seem  to  think  the  public  lands  of  the 
United  States  have  no  other  legitimate  use  or  purpose 
than  to  be  distributed  without  money  or  price  among  the 
landless  of  the  Universe,  who  may  come  here  to  clutch  a 
portion  of  the  plunder." 

Whitney  had  hardly  begun  speaking  when  he  was 
interrupted  with  #alls  for  Shepherd,  a  young  lawyer  then 
popular  with  the  turbulent  classes.  Ryckman,  a  candi- 
date of  the  National  Reformers  for  some  city  office, 
mounted  the  platform  and  began  a  harangue  denouncing 
Whitney's  project,  and  claiming  the  public  lands  as  the 
property  of  the  people,  not  to  be  given  over  to  any  set  of 
speculators.  There  was  a  great  uproar  in  the  audience, 
and  the  Mayor  and  the  vice-presidents  prudently  seized 
their  hats  and  overcoats,  and  escaped  by  a  back  door, 
Mr.  Whitney  presumably  following  close  after.  The 
mob  had  the  hall  to  themselves  for  a  time,  until  at  last 
the  gas  was  turned  off,  amid  the  shoutings  of  an  Irish 
agrarian  orator  named  Comerford. 


'"vnmumBmm 


60 


NORTHERN'  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Whitney  met  with  a  very  different  reception  in  Phila- 
delphia. In  1846  he  gained  for  his  project  in  that  city 
the  cordial  interest  of  William  D.  Kelley,  now  the  senior 
member  of  the  national  House  of  Representatives  in 
length  of  service,  then  a  rising  young  orator.  What  fol- 
lowed is  best  told  in  Judge  Kelley's  own  language: 

"  The  grandeur  of  the  subject  inspired  me,  and  my 
enthusiasm  for  his  great  project  induced  Mr.  Whitney, 
despite  the  disparity  in  our  years,  to  favor  me  with  fre- 
quent conferences,  and  to  bring  to  my  attention  what- 
ever information  relating  to  the  subject  he  obtained. 
Early  in  the  year  1846,  I  felt  justified,  by  the  growth  of 
sentiment  in  its  favor,  in  undertaking  to  secure  him  an 
opportunity  to  present  his  project  to  a  public  meeting  of 
the  citizens  of  Philadelphia.  To  induce  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  citizens  to  act  as  officers  of  the  meeting  was  the 
work  of  time.  I  found  but  few  who  took  an  interest  in 
the  subject,  or  believed  in  the  feasibility  of  the  project. 
Some  said  that  a  railroad  so  farnorth  would  not  be  avail- 
able for  as  many  months  in  the  year  as  the  Pennsylvania 
canals  were  ;  that  it  would  be  buried  in  snow  more  than 
half  the  year.  Others  cried,  *  What  madness  to  talk  of  a 
railroad  more  than  2,000  miles  long  through  that  wilder- 
ness, when  it  was  impossible  to  build  one  over  the  Allc- 
ghanies  ! ' 

"  As  I  went  from  man  to  man,  with  invaluable  collec- 
tions of  facts  and  figures  Mr.  Whitney  had  gathered,  I 
found  that  the  doubts  with  which  the  work  must  contend 
were  infinite  in  number ;  and  it  was  not  until  six 
months  had  elapsed  that  a  sufficient  number  of  well- 
known  citizens  to  constitute  the  officers  of  the  meeting 
had  consented  to  sign  the  call  for  a  meeting,  and  to  act  as 
such.  Yet  the  cause  had  gained  adherents,  and,  as  I 
find  by  reference  to  the  papers  of  that  day,  the  meeting 
for  which  I  had  so  long  labored  was  held  in  the  Chinese 


ASA    WHITNEY'S  PROJECT. 


6l 


Museum  on  the  evening  of  December  2^J,  1846.  His 
Honor,  John  Swift,  then  Mayor  of  the  city,  acted  as  pres- 
ident ;  Colonel  James  Page,  lions.  Richard  Vaux,  Will- 
iam M.  Meredith,  and  John  F.  Belsterling,  together  with 
Mr.  David  S.  Brown  and  Mr.  Charles  B.  Trego,  acted  as 
vice-presidents ;  and  Senator  William  A.  Crabb,  and  Will- 
iam D.  Kelley,  acted  as  secretaries.  The  speakers  at 
the  meeting  were  Messrs.  Whitney,  Josiah  Randall, 
Peter  A.  Browne,  and  William  D.  Kelley. 

"  Mr.  Whitney  stated,  with  great  clearness,  his  project, 
and  the  advantages  that  would  result  from  it.  It  was,  he 
said,  to  be  a  railroad  from  Lake  Michigan  to  Oregon. 
He  believed  that  it  could  be  constructed  on  a  line  about 
2,400  miles  in  length,  and  he  and  his  associates  hoped  to 
be  able  to  build  it  in  twenty  years  if  the  government 
would  grant  sixty  miles  breadth  of  land  for  the  whole  dis- 
tance. In  answer  to  the  question  how  he  could  make 
land  in  that  remote  wilderness  avaikible  for  building  a 
road,  he  dwelt  upon  the  contrast  between  the  climate  of 
that  country  and  that  with  which  dwellers  east  of  the 
Mississippi  were  familiar,  and  asserted  fearlessly  that  a 
railroad  through  that  section  would  be  less  disturbed  by 
snow  than  one  through  Central  New  York  or  Pennsylvania, 
and  proceeded  to  disclose  his  plan,  which  involved  a  large 
annual  emigration  from  Europe  and  the  cities  of  the  East- 
ern States.  His  plan  was  to  employ  these  emigrants  in 
the  construction  of  the  road,  and  to  pay  them  in  part 
in  land,  and  to  detail  a  sufficient  number  to  prepare 
small  portions  of  the  farm  of  each  for  cultivation  and  oc- 
cupation, so  that  they  who  worked  upon  the  road  one 
year  should  dwell  upon  its  borders  as  farmers  thereafter. 
By  this  method  he  believed  that  by  the  time  the  road 
should  be  built  the  line  of  it  would  be  tolerably  well  set- 
tled, and  a  large  local  traffic  created. 

"  Josiah  Randall,   Esq.,  submitted  to  the  meeting  a 


62 


NORTIIER.V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


seriT's  of  resolutions  which  were  heartily  adopted,  and 
from  which  I  quote  the  following : 

"  '  Whereas  the  completion  of  a  railroad  from  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  Pacific  would  secure  th«.  carrying  of  the 
greater  portion  of  the  commerce  of  the  world  to  Amer- 
ican enterprise,  and  open  to  it  the  markets  of  Japan  and 
the  vast  empire  of  China,  of  all  India,  and  of  all  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans,  together  with 
those  of  the  Western  Coast  of  Mexico  and  South 
America  ; 

"  *  And,  whereas,  we  have  in  our  public  lands  a  fund 
sufficient  for  and  appropriate  to  the  construction  of  so 
great  and  beneficent  a  work  ;  and  the  proposition  of  Asa 
Whitney,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  to  construct  a  railroad  from 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  Pacific  for  the  grant  of  a  strip  of 
land  sixty  miles  wide,  offers  a  feasible  and  cheap,  if  not 
the  only,  plan  forthe  early  completion  of  an  avenue  from 
ocean  to  ocean  ;  therefore, 

"  *  Resolved,  That  we  cordially  approve  of  the  project 
of  Asa  Whitney,  Esq.,  for  the  construction  of  a  railroad 
to  the  Pacific,  and  respectfully  petition  Congress  to  grant 
or  set  apart,  before  the  close  of  the  present  session,  the 
lands  prayed  for  by  Mr.  Whitney  for  this  purpose.'  " 

The  above  resolutions  will  serve  to  indicate  die  charac- 
ter of  those  subsequently  adopted  by  meetings  in  other 
cities  and  by  legislative  bodies. 

In  1S48  Mr.  Whitney  made  another  effort  in  Washing- 
ton. He  obtained  select  committees  in  both  Houses  of 
Congress  for  the  consideration  of  his  bill.  Mr.  Pollock, 
of  Pennsylvania,  was  chairman  of  the  House  Committee, 
and  Mr.  Niles,  of  Connecticut,  of  the  Senate  Committee. 
The  bill  did  not  provide  for  any  corporate  company.  It 
authorized  Asa  Whitney,  his  heirs  or  assigns,  to  construct 
a  railroad  "from  any  point  on  Lake  Michigan  or  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  he  may  designate,  in  a  line  as  nearly  straight 


ASA    WIIITyEY'S  PROJECT. 


63 


as  the  face  of  the  country  will  admit,  and  where  the  streams 
may  be  bridged,  to  some  point  on  the  Pacific  Ocean 
where  a  suitable  harbor  may  be  had."  It  set  apart  all  the 
government  lands  Ij-ing  within  thirty  miles  of  the  line  to 
furnish  means  by  their  sale  for  the  construction  of  the 
road,  and  allowed  Whitney  to  select  indemnity  land  any- 
where in  the  United  States  in  lieu  of  such  tracts  as  had 
already  been  disposed  of  within  those  limits.  Whitney 
was  to  pay  the  nominal  price  of  ten  cents  per  acre  for  the 
grant  as  fast  as  sales  were  made.  For  every  section  of 
ten  miles  of  the  road  built,  a  five-mile  slice  of  the  sixty- 
mile  wide  grant  was  to  be  conveyed  to  him.  The  other 
five-mile  strip  was  to  be  sold  by  the  government  and  the 
proceeds  were  to  form  a  fund  for  building  the  road  through 
poor  and  unsalable  lands.  Whenever  the  cost  of  ten 
miles  of  road  exceeded  the  returns  from  the  sale  of  five 
miles  of  the  grant,  then  Whitney  was  to  demand  a  sale 
of  the  reserved  lands,  and  receive  enough  of  the  proceeds 
to  make  good  the  deficiency.  The  road  was  to  be  com- 
pleted within  twenty-five  years,  and  was  to  be  of  six-foot 
gauge,  laid  with  rails  weighing  sixty-four  pounds  to  the 
yard.  When  finished,  the  unsold  lands  within  the  grant 
were  to  be  sold  to  form  a  fund  to  operate  the  road  for  ten 
years.  Whitney  was  to  be  the  sole  owner,  but  the  gov- 
ernment was  to  establish  tolls  and  regulate  the  operation 
of  the  line,  and  pay  him  a  salary  of  $4,000  for  man- 
aging it. 

The  Senate  Committee  reported  favorably  Mr.  Whit- 
ney's bill  in  1848,  but  Mr.  Benton  attacked  it  "  in  a 
boisterous  and  unparliamentary  manner,"  and  it  was  tabled 
by  a  vote  of  27  to  21.  The  strong  vote  it  received  showed 
that  the  measure  was  popular,  in  spite  of  its  curious  con- 
centration of  the  power  and  profit  of  the  proposed  enter- 
prise in  the  hands  of  one  man. 

Whitney  made  a  final  effort  in   1849.     A  volume  he 


64 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


published  in  that  year,  entitled,  "A  Project  of  a  Railroad 
to  the  Pacific  "  may  be  seen  in  some  of  the  public  libraries. 
It  begins  with  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  in  which  Whitney  pleaded  for  his  project  in  this 
manner  :  "  Will  you,  then,  allow  me  to  take  these  wilder- 
ness waste  lands,  as  they  are  now,  except  to  a  small  ex- 
tent, without  timber,  without  navigable  streams,  without 
value,  and  impossible  of  settlement,  and  build  this  great 
highway  for  the  nation,  with  the  improved  facilities  it 
would  afford;  settle  the  lands  with  a  population,  which 
would  be  a  source  of  wealth  and  power,  and  give  to  the 
people  a  road,  not  to  earn  dividends  for  a  company,  but 
requiring  tolls  sufficient  for  the  expenses  of  its  operation 
and  repairs,  and  making  it  a  sure  means  of  adding  mill- 
ions to  the  national  treasury,  without  the  outlay  by  the 
nation  of  one  dollar,  and  all  under  the  control  of  Con- 
gress ?  " 

Whitney  estimated  the  length  of  road  at  2,030  miles, 
and  the  cost  of  construction  at  $40,600,000,  to  which  he 
added  $20,000,000  for  repairs  and  operation  until  the  road 
should  pay  expenses,  making  a  total  of  $60,600,000.  The 
land  grant  was  figured  at  77,952,000  acres,  about  30,000,- 
000  acres  more  than  the  grant  subsequently  made  to  the 
Northern  Pacific  Company.  Whitney  thought  that  only 
800  miles  of  the  grant  would  contain  good  land.  The 
route  M\dicated  on  the  map  he  submitted  to  Congress 
was  shown  by  a  line  drawn  from  St.  Joseph,  Mich., 
to  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis.,  thence  straight  across  tue 
country  to  Lewis  and  Clarke's  Pass,  in  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ai'Hs;  thence  down  the  Clearwater  and  Snake  Rivers  to 
Walla  Walla  and  the  Columbia,  and  finally  across  the 
Cascade  Mountains  to  Puget  Sound.  Whitney  believed 
he  had  selected  the  only  route  offering  any  hope  of  suc- 
cess. He  wrote  in  his  pamphlet :  "  In  my  examinations  of 
this  vast  subject  the  first  and  most  important  points  of 


consider; 
the  publ 
nv'ilablc 
the  work 
route  po.'- 
intcrcour 
route  wh 
line  timb 
incnt  of 
route  whi 
and  Asia 
where  the 
ucts  from 
route  v.'liL 
bridgtd- 
tain  almo 
Pacific   O 
which  do 
could  not 
for  the  gra 
kind." 

Whitnej 

this  cloquc 

route  to  til 

all  routes  r 

is  unquesti 

and  a  comi 

one  travers 

ous  belt  of 

mont  and  ] 

cut— one  tc 

and  he  kn« 

'ind   of  the 

knowledge 

and  Clarke' 


AS.l    IVI/ITXEY'S  PROJECT. 


65 


consideration  were  the  means  and  route — the  means  being 
the  public  lands,  the  route  must  be  through  to  make  them 
a^'-ilablo;  and  when  I  found  the  only  available  lands  for 
the  work  on  the  line  of  the  only  feasible  route — the  only 
route  possessing  direct  and  cheap  means  of  transit  to  and 
intercourse  with  the  principal  Atlantic  cities — the  only 
route  which  could  furnish  on  the  commencement  of  its 
line  timber  and  materials  for  the  work  and  for  the  setile. 
mcnt  of  the  country  for  almost  the  entire  line — tl"  "  only 
route  which  would  shorten  the  distance  between  Europe 
and  Asia  so  as  to  force  a  change  to  it — the  only  route 
where  the  climate  would  permit  us  to  take  our  vast  prod- 
ucts from  the  soil  to  the  markets  of  all  Asia — the  only 
route  v/hcrc  all  the  streams  from  ocean  to  ocean  could  be 
bridged — and  the  only  route  which  could  carry  and  sus- 
tain almost  an  entire  line  of  setth^rri  nt  with  it  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean — and  finding  here  all  those  advantages, 
which  do  not  exist  in  anj-  o.  jr  route,  I  ditl  feci  that  I 
could  not  be  wrong,  and  that  Nature's  God  had  made  this 
for  the  grand  highway  to  civilize  and  Christianize  all  man- 
kind." 

Whitney  was  right  in  nearly  all  the  points  he  made  in 
this  eloquent  summary  of  the  advantages  of  the  Northern 
route  to  the  Pacific.  It  is  not  the  only  feasible  route — for 
all  routes  are  feasible  to  modern  engineering  skill — but  it 
is  unquestionably  the  best  route  in  both  an  engineering 
and  a  commercial  sense,  and  is,  as  he  foresaw,  the  only 
one  traversing  a  country  capable  of  sustaining  a  continu- 
ous belt  of  settlement.  Whitney  had  talked  with  Fre- 
mont and  Emory,  who  had  recently  traversed  the  contin- 
ent— one  to  San  Francisco,  and  the  other  to  San  Diego — 
and  he  knew  of  the  heavv  snows  on  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
and  of  the  vast  deserts  on  the  Southern  route.  His 
knowledge  of  the  Northern  route  was  formed  from  Lewis 
and  Clarke's  journal,  and  the  narratives  of  the  fur  traders. 


'^■"oammmmm 


lif 


66 


XORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  high-water  mark  of  his  pro'oct  in  Congress  Scems  to 
have  been  reached  in  1848.  He  continued  his  exertions 
for  several  years  afterward,  but  without  success.  The 
struggle  over  the  slavery  question  absorbed  attention. 
The  air  was  murky  with  the  clouds  of  sectional  strife. 
Men  could  not  see  far  into  the  future.  There  was  little 
interest  in  schemes  of  national  development.  Whitney's 
project  languished.  It  produced  one  important  result, 
however :  the  government  determined  to  survey  four 
routes  to  the  Pacific,  with  a  view  to  learning  whether  a 
railroad  by  any  or  all  of  them  was  feasible.  In  this  survey 
the  Northern  route  had  to  be  included,  although  the 
Southern  statesmen,  then  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  Wash- 
ington, had  no  liking  for  it  nor  confidence  that  it  would 
be  found  practicable. 

Whitney  spent  his  fortune  in  his  efforts  to  educate 
public  sentiment  on  the  question  of  a  railway  to  the  Pacif- 
ic and  to  obtain  a  land  grant  from  Congress.  He  passed 
his  last  years  keeping  a  dairy  and  selling  milk,  it  maybe, 
to  the  very  Congressmen  who  had  voted  to  give  him  a 
belt  of  land  sixty  miles  broad  and  over  two  thousand 
miles  long.  He  died  poor — the  usual  fortune  of  men  who 
pioject  great  enterprises  ahead  of  their  time. 

Toward  the  close  of  Whitney's  efforts  in  Congress  his 
project  was  sharply  antagonized  by  several  rival  schemes, 
the  most  conspicuous  of  which,  because  supported  by 
William  H.  Seward,  was  the  "  National  Pacific  Railroad" 
plan,  devised  by  George  Wilkes,  of  New  York.  Its  orig- 
inal feature  was  the  election  of  commissioners  by  the 
Legislatures  or  the  people  of  the  several  States,  to  form 
a  Board  to  build  and  manage  the  road.  Mr.  Wilkes  was 
not  so  much  concerned  with  the  question  of  the  route  as 
with  that  of  the  best  organization  for  a  company.  Thomas 
H.  Benton  projected  a  line  from  St.  Louis  by  way  of 
Pueblo,  New  Mexico,  to  San  Francisco,  with  a  branch  to 


Oregon 

mence  c 

cago,  in 

of  interi 

ing  the " 

a  speed' 

that  his 

insepara 

built  to 

Railroad 

over  by 

fended  t 

lawyer,  \. 

monizing 

ncy's    la; 

out  a  roi 

Council  ] 

that  strci 

Cascade 

Loughbo 

Missouri, 

Ilumbold 

and  termi 

lumbia,  ai 

Conventic 

ulating  pi 

than  the  c 

front  of  si 

bia  and  se 

poweis  an 

About  t 

York,  clair 

across  the 

view  with  ; 

to  build  a 


ASA    WHITNEY'S  PROJECT. 


^7 


Oregon,  which  he  advocated  with  characteristic  vehe- 
mence on  ail  occasions.  A  convention  was  held  at  Chi- 
cago, in  the  spring  of  1849,  ^o  consider  the  whole  subject 
of  internal  commerce.  Seward  wrote  a  letter  to  it  favor- 
ing the  Wilkes'  plan,  and  W.  M.  Hall,  of  New  York,  made 
a  speech  in  its  behalf,  in  which  he  expressed  the  belief 
that  his  own  name,  with  that  of  George  Wilkes,  would  be 
inseparably  linked  in  history  with  the  railroad  soon  to  be 
built  to  the  Pacific.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  a  Pacific 
Railroad  convention  met  at  St.  Louis,  and  was  presided 
over  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Benton's  plan  was  de- 
fended by  himself,  and  J.  Loughborough,  a  St.  Louis 
lawyer,  presented  what  he  called  "  a  proposition  for  har- 
monizing all  sections  and  parties  of  the  Union."  Whit- 
ney's last  map,  as  shown  to  this  convention,  marked 
out  a  route  from  Chicago  by  way  of  Prairie  du  Chien, 
Council  Bluffs  and  the  South  Pass  to  Snake  River,  down 
that  stream  to  Fort  Walla  Walla,  and  thence  across  the 
Cascade  Mountains  to  Fort  Nisqually,  on  Puget  Sound. 
Loughborough's  compromise  line  ran  from  Independence, 
Missouri,  to  the  South  Pass,  and  thence  by  way  of  the 
Humboldt  River  to  California,  with  a  branch  to  Oregon 
and  termini  at  Yaquina  Bay,  Fort  Vancouver,  on  the  Co- 
lumbia, and  Fort  Nisqually  on  the  Sound.  The  St.  Louis 
Convention  opposed  Whitney's  plan  as  ''  a  monster  spec- 
ulating project  to  give  him  a  sweep  of  territory  larger 
than  the  domain  of  eight  sovereign  States,  with  an  ocean 
front  of  sixty  miles,  comprising  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia and  several  smaller  harbors,  and  with  the  contracting 
poweis  and  patronage  of  an  emperor." 

About  this  time  Dr.  Hartwell  Carver,  of  western  New 
York,  claimed  to  be  the  first  man  to  dream  of  a  railroad 
across  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  rushed  into  the  public 
view  with  a  demand  for  an  exclusive  and  perpetual  charter 
to  build  a  road  from  Lake  Michigan,  by  v.  ay  of  the  South 


'"muuuiiiii 


68 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Pass,  to  San  Francisco,  with  a  branch  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia.  His  project  found  little  favor,  and  he  was  ridi- 
culed at  the  St.  Louis  Convention  for  "  hurrying  forward 
on  the  heels  of  Whitney  and  Wilkes."  His  financial 
scheme  contemplated  a  land  grant  and  a  subscription  by 
the  Government  to  the  stock  of  his  company. 


the 
idi- 
ard 
cial 
by 


Ban 


Harvesting  on  a  Honanza  Farm. 

[By  permission  of  Harper  &  Brotliers,  New  York.] 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

EDWIN   F.  JOHNSON'S  EFFORTS. 

All  Eminent  Engineer  Takes  up  the  Pacific  Railway  I'roject — Edwin  F. 
Johnson's  Career — Early  Advocacy  of  Railroad  Transportation — Plan 
for  Railroad  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Mississippi— Chief  Engineer  of  the 
Erie  Railway — At  Work  in  Wisconsin — Articles  in  the  Railroad  Journal 
— Arguments  in  Favor  of  the  Northern  Route — Rol)ert  J.  Walker  and 
Jefferion  Davis — Schemes  of  Southern  Politicians — Johnson's  Letters  Re- 
jniblished — His  Map  and  Profile. 

After  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  proj'ect  was  aban- 
doned in  despair  by  Asa  Whitney,  it  was  taken  up  and 
kept  alive  before  the  public  by  Edwin  ¥.  Johnson. 
He  regarded  it  neither  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
theorist  nor  from  that  of  a  speculator  eager  for  profit 
from  a  valuable  franchise  and  a  grant  of  public  lands. 
He  was  one  of  the  great  engineers  of  his  time — a  time 
when  engineering  talent  was  but  little  developed  in  this 
country  and  men  who  could  originate  and  carry  forward 
extensive  public  works  were  few.  He  was,  besides,  a 
statesman  by  instinct,  a  close  student  of  public  questions 
and  remarkably  familiar  with  the  topography,  climate 
and  productions  of  all  sections  of  the  United  States. 
There  was  probably  no  other  man  living  at  the  time  who 
knew  as  much  about  the  belt  of  country  between  the 
great  lakes  and  the  Mississippi  Valley  on  the  east  and 
the  Pacific  shores  on  the  west,  although  he  had  never 
been  further  west  than  St.  Paul.  He  had  so  gathered 
and  digested  all  the  information  on  the  subject  available 
ill  books  and  from  the  conversations  of  army  officers,  trap- 
pers and  traders  that  he  could  describe  the  plains,  valleys, 
mountain  passes,   forests,  water-courses  and  harbors  to 

69 


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i 

*;■■  1 

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•  1 

1  ■  / 
V  ■ 

7^ 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


be  traversed  or  touched  by  the  proposed  raUroad  much 
more  accurately  than  most  travelers  can  describe  the  ob- 
jects they  have  actually  seen. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  born  in  Essex,  Vt.,  in  1S03,  and  in 
early  life  assisted  his  father,  an  eminent  civil  engineer, 
who  ran  the  international  boundary  line  from  the 
Connecticut  River  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  Later  he  was 
a  professor  in  an  academy  at  Middletdwn,  Vt.  Resuming 
his  profession  of  engineering  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
six,  he  continued  in  it  until  his  death,  in  1872.  Mr. 
Johnson  was  one  of  the  first  advocates  in  the  United 
States  of  railways  as  a  means  of  transportation.  The 
railway  system  was  in  its  early  stages  strongly  antago- 
nized by  the  canal  interest.  He  came  to  the  conclusion,  in 
1828,  that  railways  must  ultimately  take  the  lead  of  canals, 
notwithstanding  the  success  of  the  Erie  Canal  had  created 
an  intense  feeling  in  favor  of  that  kind  of  improvement. 
So  strong  was  the  feeling,  that  in  1825  the  Legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  adopted  the  canal  system  in  face  of  a  re- 
port from  William  Strickland,  who  was  sent  to  Europe  to 
investigate  both  the  canal  and  railway  systems,  and  who 
strongly  recommended  the  latter.  The  ablest  engineers 
at  the  time  were  very  doubtful  about  the  future  of  rail- 
ways. One  of  the  most  prominent,  Judge  Wright,  writ- 
ing to  the  President  of  the  Cheasapeake  and  Ohio  Canal, 
placed  the  railway  in  a  middle  position  as  a  means  of 
transportation  "  between  a  good  turnpike  and  a  canal." 
Mr.  Johnson  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  clearly  compre- 
hended the  importance  of  rail  transportation,  and  saw 
that  it  was  destined  to  immense  development  in  the  near 
future  ;  this,  too,  before  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  line,  which  demonstrated  the  value  of 
locomotive  engines. 

As  early  as  1826,  Mr.  Johnson  advocated  a  railway  from 
the  Hudson  River  to  the  Mississippi.     He  kept  the  proj- 


EDWIN  F.  JOHNSON'S  EFFORTS. 


n 


cct  alive  in  the  midst  of  his  engineering  labors  on  the 
new  railroads  in  the  Eastern  States,  and  in  1831  wrote  a 
pamphlet  on  tlie  subject  and  caused  it  to  be  distributed  in 
all  the  towns  and  villages  along  the  entire  route  he  had 
marked  out  for  the  projected  road.  This  work  may  be 
called  the  inception  of  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railway, 
of  which  he  became  chief  engineer  in  1836, 

In  1852  Mr.  Johnson  was  engaged  in  Wisconsin  as 
chief  engineer  of  a  new  railroad  called  the  Chicago,  St. 
Paul  and  Fond  du  Lac,  which  afterward  became  the 
Chicago  and  Northwestern.  The  original  project  for 
this  road  contemplated  a  terminus  at  St.  Paul,  but  when 
the  lands  granted  by  Congress  to  the  State  of  Wisconsin 
to  aid  railway  construction  came  to  be  transferred  by  the 
Legislature  a  Milwaukee  company  succeeded,  after  a 
notable  struggle,  in  getting  the  grant  to  the  Mississippi 
for  a  line  to  La  Crosse.  St.  Paul  was  thus  deprived  of 
railroad  communication  with  the  East  for  many  years. 

With  Mr.  Johnson,  as  a  capitalist  and  railroad  builder, 
was  Thomas  H.  Canfield,  of  Burlington,  Vt.,  who  after- 
ward took  a  prominent  part  in  Northern  Pacific  affairs. 
Robert  J.  Walker,  of  Mississippi,  ex-Senator  and  ex- 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  interested  in  the  same 
road,  with  Nathaniel  Talmage,  an  ex-Senator  from  New 
York.  While  the  road  was  being  constructed  from  Chi- 
cago to  Fond  du  Lac,  Johnson  used  to  have  long  talks 
with  Canfield  about  a  line  to  the  Pacific  from  St.  Paul. 
At  this  time  Johnson  wrote  several  articles  in  Poor's  Rail- 
road Journal  in  favor  of  a  road  to  the  Pacific  by  way  of 
the  valleys  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia.  Can- 
field  became  warmly  interested  in  his  arguments  in  favor 
of  the  Northern  route,  and  encouraged  him  to  reprint  the 
letters  in  pamphlet  form.  While  Johnson  was  preparing 
the  pamphlet  Walker  went  on  to  Chicago,  and  the 
manuscript  was  shown  to  him.    He  was  greatly  impressed 


■«■ 


■Hi 


72 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


with  the  chapter  summarizing  the  characteristics  of  all 
the  routes  proposed,  and  pointing  out  very  clearly  the  ad- 
vantages of  what  Johnson  called  the  valley  line,  by  way 
of  the  Missouri,  or  the  Yellowstone,  and  the  Columbia, 
and  insisted  on  taking  it  to  Washington  and  showing  it 
to  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was  then  Secretary  of  War,  and 
the  recognized  leader  of  the  ultra-Southern  element.  The 
schemes  of  Davis,  Walker,  and  the  other  Southern  lead- 
ers looked  toward  the  eventual  conquest  of  Mexico,  and 
the  spread  of  slavery  over  its  territory.  The  desperate 
attempt  to  pusli  the  institution  of  slavery  northward 
began  later  with  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise 
and  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  in  1854.  In 
1852  and  1853  the  Southern  leaders  were  still  looking 
southward.  They  were  all  agreed  that  no  railroad  should 
be  built  to  the  Pacific  north  of  the  35th  parallel.  The 
reading  of  Johnson's  chapter  is  said  to  have  spurred 
Davis  to  immediate  action  to  set  on  foot  government 
surveys  of  all  the  proposed  routes.  He  wanted  to  get 
the  matter  in  his  own  hands,  and  to  this  end  used  his  in- 
fluence to  obtain  the  adoption  by  Congress  of  a  section 
in  the  Army  bill  of  1853  which  gave  to  the  War  Depart- 
ment the  full  control  and  direction  of  the  surveys. 

Whether  Davis  had  confidence  in  Johnson's  statements 
about  the  low  altitude  of  the  mountain  passes  between 
the  Missouri  and  Columbia  valleys,  and  the  compar- 
atively light  snow-fall  on  the  northern  route,  cannot  be 
said  ;  but  he  knew  how  high  was  the  reputation  of  the 
Vermont  engineer,  and  was  evidently  a  little  anxious  lest 
his  letters  and  pamphlets  shcuM  stimulate  a  new  move- 
ment in  favor  of  the  route  he  so  strongly  commended 
before  the  Southern  scheme  for  a  road  across  Texas  and 
New  Mexico  could  be  organized  and  obtain  government 
sanction  and  aid. 

It  was  alleged  at  the  time,  perhaps  unjustly,  that  polit- 


was  not  a 


EDWIN  F.  JOHNSON'S  EFFORTS. 


n 


ical  motives  influenced  tlie  selection  of  the  officers  put 
by  Mr.  Davis  in  charge  of  the  surveys,  and  that  reports 
in  favor  of  the  two  southern  routes  were  arranged  for  in 
advance.  It  was  also  charged  that  the  two  officers  put 
in  command  of  the  northern  survey  were  expected  to  re- 
port against  that  route,  because  of  their  sympathy  with 
the  Democratic  party  as  then  controlled  by  the  South. 
We  may  dismiss  these  rumors  to  the  limbo  of  the  partizan 
and  sectional  controversies  of  the  past.  The  two  officers 
in  question  were  Stevens  and  McClcllan.  Stevens,  as  we 
shall  see,  became  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  northern 
route,  and  for  years  was  its  most  conspicuous  advocate. 
McClellan,  who  explored  Pugct  Sound,  the  Columbia 
River  and  the  Cascade  passes,  made  a  rather  meagre  re- 
port on  his  end  of  the  line,  and  his  statement  that  there 
is  only  one  practicable  pass  in  the  Cascade  Range  besides 
that  of  the  Columbia  River  has  long  since  been  disproved  ; 
still  there  is  no  question  as  to  the  serious  character  of  the 
range  as  a  barrier  to  easy  railway  building,  and  McClclhri 
was  not  an  eminent  engineer  like  Johnson.  His  mental  or- 
ganization, as  exhibited  when  he  was  in  command  of  the 
army  of  the  Potomac,  was  such  that  he  saw  difficulties 
plainly,  but  did  not  readily  see  the  means  of  overcoming 
them. 

In  1853  Mr.  Johnson's  letters  appeared  in  book  form, 
with  a  map  and  profile,  the  elevations  upon  the  latter 
being  mainly  deduced  from  the  flow  of  the  streams  and 
such  other  evidence  as  he  was  able  to  collect.  The  line 
as  indicated  on  this  map,  started  from  Chicago,  with  a 
branch  from  the  head  of  Lake  Superior,  joining  it  at 
Brcckenridge,  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  crossed 
the  plains  to  the  Missouri,  followed  the  north  bank  of 
that  stream  and  the  Dearborn  River  to  the  mountains, 
thence  ran  to  Flathead  Lake  and  Fort  Colville,  and  ended 
at  Bellingham  Bay,  on  Puget  Sound.    Mr.  Johnson's  map, 


w 


74 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


constructed  from  a  careful  study  of  the  journals  of  the 
Lewis  and  Clarke  expedition,  was  much  more  full  and 
accurate  than  that  given  in  the  published  narrative  of 
those  explorers.  He  traced  the  course  of  the  isothermal 
lines,  and  showed  that,  beginning  with  what  is  now  Min- 
nesota, and  proceeding  west,  the  winter  climate  becomes 
gradually  milder,  until  at  Puget  Sound  a  mean  winter 
temperature  warmer  than  that  of  Chesapeake  Bay  is 
found.  He  called  attention  to  the  low  altitudes  of  the 
passes  between  the  head- waters  of  the  Missouri  and  those  of 
the  Columbia,  and  to  the  moderate  amount  of  snowfall  on 
that  portion  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  chain,  as  shown  by  the 
reports  of  all  explorers.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  John- 
son's profile  of  the  Northern  Pacific  route,  drawn  before 
any  actual  instrumental  measurements  of  elevations  had 
been  made  west  of  Minnesota,  does  not  differ  more  from 
the  actual  elevations  since  ascertained  than  would  prob- 
ably the  measurements  of  two  surveyors  using  different 
instruments.  It  is  interesting  at  this  time  to  read  the 
following  summary  made  by  Mr.  Johnson  of  the  argu- 
ments in  his  pamphlet  of  1853,  written,  it  should  be  re- 
membered, several  years  before  the  full  results  of  the  gov- 
ernment survey  under  Major  Stevens  were  made  known 
to  the  public. 

1.  Its  direct  connection  at  the  eastern  extremity  with 
the  cheap  navigation  of  the  great  lakes  and  the  St.  Law- 
rence chain  of  waters,  which  reach  nearly  halfway  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 

2.  Its  terminus  on  the  Pacific  at  a  point  or  points 
more  favorable  for  concentrating  the  trade  of  that  ocean 
and  of  the  interior  than  any  other  points  further  south. 

3.  Its  location  along  the  great  valleys  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, Missouri,  and  Columbia  rivers,  which,  with  their 
tributaries,  are  navigable  for  long  distances,  a  navigation 
which  is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  connection  with  the 


propose 
ing  to 

4.  It 
of  the  J 
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the  As- 
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under  t 

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sequent 
upon  it, 
ains,  wh 
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This  diffe 
duced  by 
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in  this  re 
surpassed 
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fuel ;  coai 
the  Pacifi 
found  ov( 


EDWLV  F.  JOHNSON'S  EFFORTS. 


75 


rc- 


proposed  railway  in  facilitating  its  construction  and  giv- 
iiig  to  it  support  when  completed. 

4.  Its  connection  with  the  navigation  of  the  Red  River 
of  the  North,  a  navigation  which  extends  through  a  fer- 
tile valley  into  the  British  possessions,  uniting  there  with 
the  Assiniboinc  and  Saskatchewan  rivers,  which  flow 
through  a  region  having  large  agricultural  and  mineral 
resources,  as  ascertained  by  explorations  recently  made 
under  the  direction  of  the  Canadian  Government. 

5.  In  the  comparative  evenness  of  its  surface  and  con- 
sequent cheapness,  and  in  the  lowness  of  the  gradients 
upon  it,  the  line  crossing  the  divide  of  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains, where  the  sources  of  the  Missouri  and  Clarke's 
branch  of  the  Columbia  interlock,  the  backbone  of  the 
mountains  being  there  broken  down  so  as  to  be  overcome 
by  a  railway  with  gradients  not  exceeding  about  forty 
feet  to  the  mile,  and  with  its  main  summit  2,500  feet 
lower  and  coast  range  summit,  if  the  line  is  carried  across 
it,  4,000  feet  lower  than  the  Nevada  summit,  upon  the 
route  through  the  south  pass  to  San  Francisco. 

6.  Its  freedom  from  deep  snows  in  winter,  the  destruc- 
tions from  this  cause  being  greatest  upon  the  route  by  the 
42d  parallel  leading  through  Salt  Lake  to  San  Francisco, 
This  difference  in  the  character  of  the  two  routes  is  pro- 
duced by  the  greater  elevation  of  the  latter  route  and 
narrowness  of  its  defiles,  and  the  absence  of  moisture  in 
the  winter  months  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  northern 
route  to  produce  snows. 

7.  In  its  rich  mineral  productions,  excelling  probably 
in  this  respect  other  routes.  Its  gold  fields  not  being 
surpassed,  if  indeed  they  are  equaled,  by  those  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  being  better  supplied  with  timber,  water,  and 
fuel ;  coal  being  now  mined  in  Washington  Territory  on 
the  Pacific,  and  lignite  of  a  superior  quality  having  been 
found  over  an  extensive  section  of  the  route  and  in  its 


7^ 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


vicinity,  and  upon  the  Saskatchewan  Valley  north  of  the 
national  boundary  east  of  the  mountains. 

8.  In  its  superiority  over  other  routes  in  its  capability 
of  sustaining  a  greater  population,  and  contributing  more 
largely  to  the  support  of  a  railway,  as  evidenced  by  the 
greater  quantity  of  game  found  within  its  limits,  and  its 
being  the  abode  of  the  greatest  number  of  Indians  to  be 
found  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific,  consisting 
of  the  Sioux,  the  Crows,  the  Mandans,  the  Blackfect,  and 
the  Flatheads,  all,  except  the  Mandans,  being  large  and 
powerful  tribes.  All  these  find  an  easy  and  comfortable 
support  in  what  the  country  can  furnish,  which  cannot 
be  said  of  the  resources  of  any  other  route  to  the  Pacific. 

9.  It  constitutes  the  most  direct  and  feasible  route 
within  the  United  States  to  connect  with  the  shortest 
line  on  the  Pacific  to  the  ports  of  China,  Japan  and  East- 
ern Russia,  it  being  about  fift^  en  hundred  miles  nearer  to 
the  ports  of  China  than  the  route  from  San  Francisco  by 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  and,  being  coastwise,  offers  frequent 
opportunities  for  obtaining  supplies  of  fuel  and  food,  thus 
increasing  the  freighting  capacity  of  vessels,  without  devi- 
ating greatly  from  a  direct  course. 

Looking  back  now  at  the  efforts  of  the  three  conspicu- 
ous early  advocates  of  the  Northern  route  for  a  railroad 
to  the  Pacific,  we  see  that  Dr.  Barlow  presented  the  proj- 
ect in  its  theoretical  and  patriotic  phase  ;  that  Mr.  Whit- 
ney gave  it  the  form  of  a  public  movement,  and  brought 
it  to  the  attention  of  Congress  and  State  Legislatures ; 
and  that  Mr.  Johnson  placed  it  upon  a  practical  basis  by 
bringing  to  bear  the  experience  and  special  studies  of  a 
competent  engineer,  and  showing  the  actual  advantages 
of  the  route  for  railway  construction,  and  the  value  of  the 
country  for  settlement. 


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Coast  :\I 
Jefferson 
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and  Piibl 
His  Dea 

Ox\CE  1 

mcnt  had 

peace  wit 

of  the  Un 

States  of 

Now  Mex: 

followed,  i 

pioneers  ai 

mountains 

Francisco  : 

only  route 

railroad  ac 

and  Clarke 

controlled 

est  in  the 

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should  be  c 

liavc  its  w( 

tlicsituatio 

soon  be  bi 

aid    its    CO 


CHAPTER    IX. 

» 

THE   GOVERNMENT   SURVEYS. 

Condition  of  Public  Sentiment — Sectional  Jealousy — Effect  of  the  California 
(iolcl   Discoveries — General  Agreement  that  a   Railway  to   the   Pacific 
i    i  Coast  Must  Be  liuilt — The  Question  of  Routes — Five  Lines  Surveyed — 

Jefferson  Davis  Favors  the  Most  Southern — Governor  Stevens'  Survey  of 
the  Northern  Route — Thoroughness  of  his  Work — Advantages  of  the 
Northern  Route  Fully  Demonstrated — Stevens'  Report — 1 1  is  Writings 
and  Public  Addresses  in  Favor  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Project — 
His  Death  on  the  Battle-field. 

Once  launched  in  Congress  the  Pacific  Railway  move- 
ment had  inherent  vitality  enough  to  keep  alive.  The 
peace  with  Mexico  soon  afterward  added  to  the  domain 
of  the  United  States  the  vast  area  now  comprised  in  the 
States  of  California  and  Nevada  and  the  Territories  of 
New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  Utah.  The  gold  discoveries 
followed,  and  thousands  of  eager  treasure  seekers,  hardy 
pioneers  and  restless  adventurers,  crossed  the  plains  and 
mountains  of  the  interior  or  sailed  into  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco  in  search  of  the  new  El  Dorado.  Hitherto  the 
only  route  spoken  of  in  connection  with  the  project  for  a 
railroad  across  the  continent  was  that  followed  by  Lewis 
and  Clarke.  Now  the  scheme  widened.  The  .South,  which 
controlled  the  government,  had  before  taken  little  inter- 
est in  the  plans  of  Whitney,  but  the  conquest  of  terri- 
tory from  Mexico  opened  the  possibility  of  a  line  which 
should  be  of  advantage  to  the  Southern  States  and  should 
have  its  western  terminus  in  the  new  gold  region.  Thus 
the  situation  changed.  That  a  transcontinental  road  must 
soon  be  built  and  that  the  government  would  have  to 
aid    its    construction    became    the    general    sentiment. 

77 


;,.ti 


1 1.? 

■  A' 


78 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


\  '■'1 

■  'A 


If  there  was  any  dissent  from  this  proposition,  it  was  from 
its  last  clause,  and  it  came  from  the  strict  constructionists 
of  the  Constitution,  who  held  that  the  Federal  govern- 
ment had  very  little  power  beyond  carrying  the  mails, 
fighting  Indians  and  coining  money.  But  even  the 
State  rights  men  of  the  South,  always  eager  to  curb 
the  national  power  unless  they  could  make  it  work  for 
the  advantage  of  their  own  political  schemes,  were  ready 
to  advocate  a  railroad  provided  its  eastern  terminus  was 
at  some  point  in  their  section.  Asa  Whitney  and  his 
magnificent  project  for  a  railroad  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  were  almost  forgotten  for  a  time  in  the  excite- 
ment over  the  slavery  question  which  prevailed  after  the 
close  of  the  Mexican  War,  and  was  heightened  rather 
than  allayed  by  the  compromise  measures  of  1850;  but 
the  general  idea  of  a  Pacific  Railway  was  not  allowed  to 
drop  out  of  sight.  Indeed,  the  sectional  jealousies  which 
raged  worked  in  some  measure  to  its  advantage.  The 
North  wanted  a  line  connecting  with  roads  reaching  tlie 
seaboard  at  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston ;  the 
South  insisted  that  the  proper  eastern  termini  were  New 
Orleans  and  Memphis,  and  that  the  traffic  to  be  opened 
should  flow  to  the  ports  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the 
South  Atlantic  ports. 

It  would  not  have  been  possible  in  1853  to  secure  any 
action  from  Congress  looking  to  the  opening  of  any  par- 
ticular route,  or  even  to  its  preliminary  survey,  but  it  was 
feasible  to  throw  together  all  the  suggested  routes  and 
obtain  an  appropriation  of  money  to  survey  them  all. 
This  was  actually  done.  In  a  section  of  the  Regular 
Army  Appropriation  Bill,  approved  March  ist,  1853, 
provision  was  made  for  such  explorations  as  the  War 
Department  might  deem  advisable  in  order  to  ascertain 
the  most  practicable  and  economical  route  for  a  railroad 
from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.     The 


THE   GOVERNMENT  SURVEYS. 


n 


law  did  not  specify  the  number  or  latitude  of  the  routes 
to  be  explored,  but  it  was  the  general  understanding  in 
Congress  that  no  one  which  had  been  advocated  as  feas- 
ible and  desirable  should  be  neglected.  Jefferson  Davis 
was  Secretary  of  War  at  the  time,  and  the  whole  matter  of 
organizing  the  expeditions  and  selecting  the  routes  they 
were  to  follow  was  in  his  hands.  He  put  five  separate 
expeditions  in  the  field  early  the  same  spring,  to  explore 
as  many  different  belts  of  country,  the  first  near  the  32d 
parallel,  the  second  near  the  35th  parallel,  the  third 
near  the  38th  and  39th  parallels,  the  fourth  near  the  41st 
and  42d  parallels,  and  the  fifth  near  the  47th  and  49th 
parallels. 

The  reports  of  these  surveys  filled  thirteen  huge  quarto 
volumes,  which  were  printed  by  order  of  Congress,  with 
a  profusion  of  lithographs  and  woodcuts  of  scenery  and 
Indian  groups  and  numerous  maps.  In  submitting  the 
reports  to  Congress,  in  1855,  Mr.  Davis  summed  up  the 
information  obtained  very  clearly  and  forcibly,  and  con- 
cluded by  a  recommendation  of  the  32d  parallel  route, 
the  most  southernmost  of  all,  characterizing  it  as  the 
shortest  line  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  to  San  Francisco,  the  greatest  commercial 
city  on  that  coast;  the  easiest  to  build,  and  the  only 
route,  save  that  of  the  38th  parallel,  free  from  the  danger  of 
ob;)truction  by  snow  Being  a  Mississippian  his  predi- 
lection was  strongly  in  favor  of  a  line  that  should  leave 
the  Mississippi  River  at  a  point  no  further  north  than 
Vicksburg.  He  was  not  only  a  Southerner,  but  an  ex- 
treme Southerner,  who  wanted  to  see  the  seat  of  em- 
pire of  the  American  continent  established  in  the  Gulf 
States. 

Of  the  five  explorations  we  need  concern  ourselves 
only  with  that  of  the  northernmost  route.  This  was 
placed  in  charge  of  Isaac  I.  Stevens,  an  experienced  army 


1  "I* 

.1 


8o 


NORTHER.V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


officer  who  had  served  in  the  Mexican  War,  and  had 
held  a  position  in  the  Coast  Survey  Office  until  appointed 
Governor  of  Washington  Territory,  in  March,  1853. 
Stevens  was  a  man  of  broad  views,  liberal  education 
and  strong  character.  He  did  his  work  so  thoroughly 
that  there  v/as  little  necessit}'  for  further  preliminary 
surveys  to  ascertain  the  practicability  of  the  Northern 
route  to  the  Pacific  when,  ten  years  later,  the  project 
for  a  railroad  assumed  a  business-like  shape.  His  in- 
structions were  to  operate  from  St.  Paul,  or  some  eligible 
point  on  the  Upper  Mississippi,  toward  the  great  bend 
of  the  Missouri  River,  and  thence  on  the  tableland  be- 
tween the  tributaries  of  the  Missouri  and  those  of  the 
Saskatchewan  to  some  eligible  pass  in  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains. 

Governor  Stevens  determined  that  the  exploration 
should  be  conducted  in  two  divisions,  operating  respect- 
ively from  the  Mississippi  River  and  Puget  Sound;  and 
that  a  depot  of  provisions  should  be  established  by  a 
third  party  at  the  St.  Mary's  village,  at  the  western  base 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  facilitate  the  winter  opera- 
tions of  the  exploration,  and  enable  the  exploring  parties 
to  continue  in  the  field  the  longest  practicable  period; 
and  that  all  the  parties  should  be  organized  in  a  military 
manner  for  self-protection,  and  to  force  their  way  through 
whatever  difficulties  might  be  encountered. 

The  western  division  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  ex- 
ploring the  passes  of  the  Cascade  Mounti'ins,  from  the 
Columbia  River  to  the  British  boundary,  and  of  pushing 
eastward  to  meet  the  eastern  division  between  the  Cas- 
cade and  Rocky  Mountains.  Captain  George  B.  McClel- 
lan,  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  was  assigned  to  the  charge 
of  this  division.  Lieutenant  Rufus  Saxton,  Jr.,  in  ad- 
dition to  establishing  the  depot  at  the  western  base  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  was  directed  to  make  a  careful 


THE   GOVE/i.VMEXT  SURVEYS. 


8l 


i53. 


.as- 

:ici- 

irtje 


survey  of  tlic  country  passed  over  by  him,  with  a  view 
of  combining  the  operations  of  the  eastern  and  western 
divisions. 

The  eastern  division,  starting  from  St.  Paul,  was  under 
the  personal  direction  of  Governor  Stevens.  With  him 
were  many  persons  who  afterward  obtained  fame  as  offi- 
cers or  men  of  science.  F.  W.  Lander,  afterward  a 
brigadier  general ;  Lieutenant  John  Mullan,  who  later 
built  the  wagon  road  from  Fort  Benton  to  Walla  Walla, 
and  Cuvier  Grover,  then  a  lieutenant  and  afterward  a 
major  general  of  volunteers  and  a  colonel  in  the  regular 
army,  were  among  the  officers.  Captain  McClellan,  who 
commanded  the  division  of  the  party  operating  from  the 
Pacific  coast,  was  afterward  the  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  later  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  President.  Lieutenant  Saxton,  who  explored 
the  Rocky  Mountain  regions,  became  in  the  civil  war  a 
brigadier  general.  Probably  there  was  never  a  railroad 
surv'eying  party  put  in  the  field  which  contained  so  many 
future  great  men. 

Governor  Stevens  left  St.  Paul  with  the  eastern  division 
of  the  expedition  on  May  24th,  and  traveling  northwest- 
wardly arrived  at  the  Sheyenne  River  July  4th,  and  at  Fort 
Union,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone  River,  August  1st. 
A  wide  belt  of  country  was  explored  by  throwing  out 
small  parties  on  either  side  of  the  main  body,  with 
instructions  to  rendezvous  at  a  given  point  ahead.  At 
Fort  Union,  Lieutenant  Mullan  was  detailed  with  a  party 
to  survey  the  Valley  of  the  Yellowstone.  He  ascended 
the  river  to  a  point  not  far  from  the  present  town  of  Bil- 
lings, and  then  turning  northward  through  the  Musselshell 
country  and  Judith  Basin  rejoined  the  main  party  at 
Fort  Benton,  near  the  Falls  of  the  Missouri,  which  point 
it  reached  on  September  ist.  Here  another  division  of 
the  force  was  made.  Lieutenant  Mullan  went  back  to  the 
6 


82 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Musselshell  and,  taking  guides  from  a  camp  of  Flathead 
Indians,  crossed  the  Belt  Mountains  to  the  junction  of 
the  three  rivers  forming  the  Missouri,  and  thence  puslicd 
westward  over  the  main  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to 
Fort  Owen,  on  the  Bitter  Root  River  ;  Lieutenant  Grover 
reconnoitred  Cadotte's  Pass;  Mr.  Lander  examined  the 
Marias  Pass  and  the  country  to  the  Kootenai  post ;  and 
Governor  Stevens  explored  the  country  north  of  Fort 
Benton,  including  the  Sun  and  Marias  valleys  and  the 
base  of  the  mountains.  Before  leaving  Fort  Benton  the 
explorers  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  joined  by  Lieuten- 
ant Saxton's  party  from  the  Pacific  coast.  Saxton,  who 
had  ascended  the  Columbia  River,  and  crossed  the  plains 
at  the  Jesuit  mission  on  Lake  Cceur  d'Altne  and  the 
Bitter  Root  Range  at  the  pass  near  the  lake,  met  Lieu- 
tenant Grover  in  command  of  Stevens*  advance  party 
on  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  Cadotte's  Pass. 
The  different  parties  reached  Fort  Owen  in  good  time. 
There  Mr.  Tinkhani,  a  resolute  young  civil  engineer,  was 
sent  back  to  examine  the  western  approaches  to  the 
Marias  Pass,  Mr.  Lander  was  directed  to  explore  the  St. 
Mary's  (now  Bitter  Root)  Valley,  Lieutenant  Donelson  was 
sent  down  the  Clarke's  Fork,  and  Governor  Stevens  crossed 
the  mountains  to  Lake  Coeur  d'Al^ne.  Stevens  reached 
the  Mission  on  October  12th,  and  proceeding  down  the 
Coeur  d'Al^ne  River  next  day  met  a  Spokane  Indian,  who 
told  him  of  a  party  of  thirty  men  that  had  reached  the 
Columbia,  opposite  Colville,  the  day  before.  Stevens  knew 
that  this  must  be  McClellan's  party,  which  had  come  from 
the  Cascade  Mountains  and  Puget  Sound.  By  pushing 
on  all  night  he  met  McClellan  next  morning.  The  two  had 
not  heard  from  each  other  since  they  separated  in  May, 
when  talking  about  their  probable  place  of  meeting  they 
had  spoken  of  Colville.  The  united  force  proceeded  to 
'^'"V'      Walla  and  the  Dalles,  reaching  the  latter  place  on 


THE   GOVERNMENT  SURVEYS. 


83 


November  12th.  Early  in  December  Stevens  arrived  at 
Olympia,  on  Puget  Sound.  He  returned  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  next  year  for  further  explorations,  and  to 
gather  up  the  results  of  the  work  of  his  detached  parties 
which  rendezvoused  at  Walla  Walla. 

Captain    McCIellan    surveyed    the    country    between 

Seattle  and  the  Columbia  Valley  by  way  of  the  Valley  of 

the  Cowlitz,  and  thence  followed  the  Columbia  up  to  the 

mouth   of  the   Yakima.      Then    going    up   the   Yakima 

to  its  head-waters  in  the  Cascade  Range   he   examined 

the    Snoqualmie    Pass    as    far   as   a   point   three    miles 

west  of  the  dividing  ridge.     He  reported   to   Governor 

Stevens  that  the  Yakima  Pass  was  barely  practicable,  and 

that  only  at  a  high  cost  of  time,  labor  and  money,  while 

the  Columbia  River  Pass  was  not  only  practicable,  but 

remarkably  favorable,  being  by  far  the  best  between  lati- 

laue  45°  30'  and  latitude 49°.  "The  question,"  McCIellan 

wrote,  "  is,  after   all,   reduced  to  a  choice  between    the 

shorter  line,  high  grades,  a  very  long  tunnel,  and  almost 

certain   difficulty  from  the    snow,  in  one  case;    and  the 

longer  line,  low  grades,  little  or  no  tunneling   and  no 

trouble  from  the  snow,  in  the  other.    I  prefer  the  latter." 

Governor  Stevens    sent  A.    L.  Tinkham,  who  had  done 

winter  service  in  the  passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  up 

to  the  Snoqualmie  Pass  in  the  winter  of  1854,  to  measure 

the  depth  of  snow.     Tinkham  found  seven    feet    in    the 

pass  on  the   2ist  of  January.     McCIellan   in   his  report, 

written  in  February,  1854,  threw  doubts  on  the  value  of 

Tiiikham's   measurement   and    said   that  he  was  still   of 

the  opinion  that   in  ordinary  winters  not  less  than  from 

twenty  to  twenty-five  feet  of  snow  would  be  found  in  the 

passes  during  the  most  unfavorable  months  of  the  year. 

A  personal  difference   between  Stevens   and    McCIellan 

grew  out  of  this    matter  of  the    snow    in    the    Cascade 

Passes,  Stevens  preferring  to  indorse  the  view  of  Tink- 


84 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ham  rather  than  that  of  McClellan,  and  friendly  relations 
were  severed  until  the  two  met  in  Washington  during 
the  war,  when  a  reconciliation  took  place. 

The  general  results  of  Gov.  Stevens'  explorations  were 
to  show  that  there  was  an  easy  route  for  a  railroad  from 
St.  Paul  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  either  by  the  Valley  of 
the  Missouri  or  that  of  the  Yellowstone ;  that  the  main 
range  of  the  Rockies  offered  no  obstacles  that  could  not 
be  overcome  by  a  tunnel  and  ordinary  mountain  grades; 
that  the  Bitter  Root  Spur  was  more  formidable,  but  could 
be  turned  by  way  of  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille;  that  there 
were  several  practicable  passes  in  the  Cascade  Range,  and 
that  the  Valley  of  the  Columbia  offered  a  favorable 
though  expensive  route.  In  a  word,  Stevens  showed  that 
the  Northern  route  to  the  Pacific  was  not  only  a  prac- 
ticable but  a  very  favorable  one,  following  valleys  or 
traversing  plains  for  nearly  its  whole  length,  and  crossing 
the  mountain  backbone  of  the  continent  at  comparatively 
low  elevations.  His  report  served  afterward  as  the  solid 
foundation  upon  which  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
enterprise  as  a  business  project  rested.  He  became  an 
ardent  advocate  of  this  route,  and  by  his  writings 
and  public  utterances  did  much  to  make  its  merits  known. 

Governor  Stevens's  advocacy  of  the  Northern  route, 
begitming  immediately  after  the  completion  of  his  sur- 
vey, continued  until  his  death.  He  was  of  an  active,  ar- 
dent turn  of  mind,  and  combined  in  his  disposition  the 
accurate,  practical  habits  of  the  trained  engineer  with  the 
boldness  and  imagination  of  a  projector  of  great  en- 
terprises. He  could  estimate  with  remarkable  correct- 
ness the  cost  of  constructing  railroads  through  a  .>  ildcr- 
ness,  and  speak  with  authority  on  gradients,  tunnels, 
and  excavations,  and  at  the  same  time  he  could  make 
figures  eloquent,  and  illumine  dry  pages  of  statistics 
by  the  faculty  of  graphic  presentation  with  tongue  or 


itions 
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Congres 
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tances  anc 


THE  GOVERS'MENT  SURVEYS, 


85 


pen.  When  he  came  East  to  attend  the  sessions  of 
Congress,  he  wrote  pamphlets  and  delivered  addresses  on 
the  resources  of  the  Pacific  Northwest,  and  the  advant- 
ac^cs  for  a  railroad  of  the  route  he  had  surveyed.  His 
graphic  addresses  were  illustrated  by  a  map  upon  which 
he  showed  how  the  isothermal  lines  make  a  great  sweep 
to  the  northward  beyond  the  Mississippi  Valley,  causing 
the  climate  of  Oregon  and  the  Pugct  Sound  region  to  be 
milder  in  winter  than  that  of  Virginia. 

In  an  address  on  "  The  Northwest,"  delivered  in  New 
York,  in  December,  1858,  before  the  American  Geograph- 
ical and  Statistical  Society,  Governor  Stevens  gave  an 
admirable,  thorough  description  of  the  ehtire  line  sur- 
veyed by  him  from  the  Red  River  of  the  North  to  Puget 
Sound,  the  soil,  scenery,  climate,  capacity  of  supporting 
population,  facilities  for  railway  building,  etc.  He  showed 
that  there  was  a  difference  in  distance  in  favor  of  the 
Northern  over  the  other  routes  surveyed,  and  also  an  ad- 
vantage in  the  sum  of  ascents  and  descents.  In  short,  he 
presented  the  whole  argument  in  behalf  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Road  as  it  was  afterward  repeated  in  support  of 
the  bill  chartering  the  company,  and  in  the  subsequent 
appeals  to  the  public  for  subscriptions  to  its  stock  and 
bonds.  Some  of  his  statements  were  received  with  a 
great  deal  of  skepticism,  but  time  has  shown  that  they 
were  strictly  and  conscientiously  accurate. 

Among  the  effective  work  done  by  Governor  Stevens 
ill  behalf  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  project,  men- 
tion should  be  made  of  a  letter  he  addressed  from  Wash- 
itigton  City  to  a  railroad  convention  which  assembled  at 
Vancouver,  Washington  Territory,  May  20,  i860,  to  con- 
sider means  for  building  a  road  from  the  Valley  of  the 
Columbia  to  Puget  Sound.  In  this  letter  he  gave  so  clear 
and  condensed  an  account  of  the  Northern  route,  its  dis- 
tances and  grades,  as  compared  with  the  line  then  pro* 


i 

It 

86 


NORTHER y  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


jcctcd  to  Bcnicia,  California  ;  its  advantageous  situation 
in  relation  to  the  China  and  Japan  trade,  and  the  adapt- 
ability of  the  country  it  would  traverse  for  continuous 
settlement,  that  the  document,  printed  in  pamphlet  form, 
became  a  cyclopedia  in  miniature,  from  which  facts  and 
arguments  have  ever  since  been  drawn  by  the  friends  o{ 
that  route. 

A  single  paragraph  may  be  quoted  here,  to  show  that 
there  was  no  lack  of  accurate  knowledge  concerning  the 
habitable  character  of  the  Northern  belt  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago,  had  the  public  been  willing  to  be  disa- 
bused of  the  current  notion  that  the  region  was  a  hyper- 
borean desert — a  notion,  by  the  way,  which  lingers  in 
some  minds  even  to  this  day,  although  there  io  now  an 
unbroken  line  of  settlements  from  St.  Paul  to  Pugct 
Sound  : 

"  Nearly  the  Avhole  of  the  country  on  the  Northern 
route,"  wrote  Governor  Stevens,  **  is  susceptible  of  con- 
tinuous occupancy  by  our  people.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  desert,  properly  so  speaking,  on  the  entire 
route.  There  arc  gaps  or  intervals  where  it  is  only  a 
grazing  country  ;  there  arc  portions  of  the  country  oc- 
cupied by  mountain  ranges  which  would  not  admit  of 
profitable  cultivation  ;  but,  as  a  whole,  the  country  is 
fitted  for  settlement  and  cultivation,  and  must  be  settled 
and  occupied  at  an  early  day.  Or,  to  go  more  into  de- 
tails, from  Breckenridge,  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North, 
to  the  Divide  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  route  passes 
through  a  strictly  cultivable  country,  capable  of  continu- 
ous settlement,  except  for  about  one  hundred  jn  i  fifty 
miles,  in  three  sections  of  about  equal  lengths.  On  this 
portion  you  can  plant  agricultural  settlements  at  points 
suitable  for  railroad  or  mail  stations.  From  near  the 
Divide  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  the  country  is  capable  of 
continuous  settlement  to  within  twenty  miles  of  the  Di- 


THE   GOVEKXMEXT  SURVEYS, 


87 


vide  of  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains.  The  eastern  half  of 
the  Great  Plain  of  the  Cokimbia,  the  northern  and  the 
southern  portions,  consists  of  rich  river  valleys  and  fertile 
tablelands.  A  portion  of  the  western  half  will  not  fur- 
nish arable  land  for  continuous  settlements.  BcUvcen 
the  Columbia  and  the  Cascade  Mountains,  the  line  is 
flanked  on  the  south  by  a  large  body  of  fertile  land,  and 
passes  immediately  through  a  fine  grass  country,  and  for 
at  least  half  the  distance  through  an  excellent  cultivable 
country.  From  the  Cascade  Mountains  to  the  Sound, 
the  line  passes  through  a  continuously  cultivable  country. 
The  whole  intermediate  country  between  the  head-waters 
of  the  Missouri  and  the  Great  Plain  of  the  Columbia  ad- 
mits of  continuous  settlement,  except  about  forty  miles 
on  the  highest  part  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  thirty 
miles  on  the  highest  part  of  the  Bitter  Root  Moun*"ains." 

In  this  letter  Governor  Stevens  gave  a  table  of  dis- 
tances from  the  principal  cities  of  the  East  to  Seattle,  on 
Pugct  Sound,  and  Benicia,  on  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco, 
showing  that  the  difference  in  favor  of  the  Northern 
route  to  the  Pacific  was  as  follows:  from  Chicago,  317 
miles;  from  Portland,  Maine,  582  miles;  from  Boston, 
344  miles ;  from  New  York,  420  miles  ;  from  Philadel- 
phia, 466  miles  ;  from  Baltimore,  309  miles  ;  from  Wash- 
ington, Charleston,  Savannah,  Mobile,  and  New  Orleans, 
117  miles.  These  figures  were  afterward  employed  with 
<^'!<zdX  effect  in  enlisting  support  in  Congress  and  in  the 
country  for  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise. 

Going  to  Congress  in  1857  '^s  Delegate  from  Wash- 
ington Territory,  Governor  Stevens  served  in  that  capacity 
until  the  rebellion  broke  out  in  1861.  He  then  obtained 
the  colonelcy  of  a  New  York  regiment,  was  promoted  to 
be  brigadier  general,  and  was  killed,  while  gallantly  lead- 
ing his  troops,  at  the  battle  of  Chantilly,  in  Virginia 
September  ist,  1862. 


CHAPTER   X. 


FUTILE  MOVEMENTS   IN   CONGRESS. 


Last  of  Asa  Whitney's  Project — California's  Demand — The  Northern  Route 
almost  Lost  Sight  of — \Vm.  H.  Seward's  Bill — Henry  S.  Foote's  Southern 
Pacific  Bill — Sectional  Strife  over  the  Question  of  Routes — The  Bill  (jf 
1S55  for  Three  Lines  to  the  Pacific— Wellcr's  Subsidy  and  Land  Grant 
Bill  of  1S56 — President  Buchanan's  Advocacy — A  New  Bill  for  a  Slnt^le 
Central  Line  Changed  to  one  for  Three  Lines,  and  Defeated  in  1S59 — 
Curtis's  Single  Route  Bill  of  iSGo — The  Prototype  of  the  Union  and  Cen- 
tral Pacific  Railroad  Legislation — The  Northern  I'acific  Railroad  named 
and  Recognized  by  Congress  in  iSCi — A  Northern  Pacific  Company  or- 
ganized  in  Washington  Territory. 

Asa  Wiiitnev's  crude  project  was  kept  alive  in  a  feeble 
way  in  Congress  until  1852,  when  it  made  its  final  appear- 
ance on  the  record  coupled  with  a  scheme  to  authorize 
Samuel  L.  Selden  and  Robert  I.  Scott  to  build  a  railroad 
from  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  not  north  of  Mem- 
phis, to  the  Rio  del  Norte  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  at  San 
Francisco  or  some  other  point.  Here,  for  the  first  time, 
it  would  seem,  was  an  alliance  attempted  between  the 
friends  of  different  routes;  a  proceeding  often  repeated  in 
the  subsequent  history  of  Pacific  railroad  legislation.  The 
scheme  of  Selden  and  Scott  for  a  Southern  Pacific  rail- 
road, whatever  it  was,  left  no  trace  of  itself  save  the  title  of 
a  bill  in  the  Congressional  Globe.  It  does  not  sceni  to 
have  gained  in  force  from  its  union  with  Whitney's  dying 
project.  Indeed,  the  whole  question  of  a  railroad  to  the 
Pacific  had  now  assumed  an  entirely  new  phase.  The 
adventurous  gold  seekers  who  poured  into  California 
during  tiie  years  1848,  1849,  'i"<^  1850  from  all  parts  of  the 
civilized  globe,  had  organized  themselves  into  a  stable 
community,  built  cities  and  towns,  and  established  a  State 

88 


imc, 
the 

xl  ill 
'he 

rail- 
of 
to 

Vlllg 

the 
The 
niia 

the 
ible 
tatc 


a 

V 

u 

in 


(4 

Oh 


a 
0^ 


governn 
1850,  an 
floor  of 
support( 
line  terr 
mand  s( 
lation  o 
outstrip] 
of  Oregc 
that  the 
gold  dis 
only  cm 
public  n 
kept  aliv 
Governo 
and  Oret 

The  la 
a  Mississ 
of  the  Sc 
culed  Wl 
a  barren 
letter  frc 
Ingalls,  ] 
0.  D.  A; 
that,  as  il 
hundred 
was  finisi 

By  gen 
aside  in 
being  pre 
reference 
annual  ir 
words  wii 
route  or 
right  of  t 


FUTILE  MOVEMENTS  IN  CONGRESS. 


89 


fTovernment.  California  was  admitted  to  the  Union  in 
1850,  and  had  her  senators  and  representatives  on  the 
floor  of  Congress  to  ocmand  that  any  railroad  project 
supported  by  the  Government  should  have  in  view  a 
line  terminating  at  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  This  de- 
mand seemed  only  reasonable,  inasmuch  as  the  popu- 
lation of  the  new  gold-producing  State  had  already  far 
outstripped  that  of  the  feeble  agricultural  communities 
of  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory.  Thus  it  happ<  ned 
that  the  Northern  route  to  the  Pacific,  which  prior  to  the 
gold  discoveries  in  the  Sacramento  valley  had  been  the 
only  one  seriously  considered,  almost  dropped  out  of 
public  notice  for  sj\cral  years.  Indeed,  it  was  barely 
kept  alive  by  the  vc  i atelligent  and  forcible  advocacy  of 
Governor  Stevens^  'lidod  by  the  efforts  of  the  Minnesota 
and  Oregon  delegation  in  Congress. 

The  last  heard  of  Whitney's  project  was  in  1852,  when 
a  Mississippi  member,  nar.iv,d  Freeman,  speaking  in  favor 
of  the  Southern  route  from  Vicksburg  to  California,  ridi- 
culed Whitney's  plan  as  one  "  to  build  a  railroad  through 
a  barren,  uninhabited,  frozen  region,"  and  produced  a 
letter  from  a  Boston  committee,  composed  of  William 
Ingalls,  E.  H.  Derby,  I.  C.  Dunn,  P.  P.  F.  Le  Grand,  and 
0.  D.  Ashley,  criticising  Whitney's  bill  on  the  ground 
tlut,  as  it  required  him  to  build  only  ten  miles  a  year,  one 
hundred  and  seventy  years  mi;;-!:  elapse  before  the  road 
was  finished. 

By  general  consent  the  Paniic  railroad  project  was  laid 
aside  in  Congress  while  ilic  J  v. crnment  surveys  were 
being  prosecuted.  In  1853,  President  Pierce  made  a  long 
reference  to  the  surveys  and  the  project  in  general  in  his 
annual  message,  and  succeeded  in  using  a  great  many 
words  without  committing  himself  either  to  any  special 
route  or  to  the  general  principle  of  the  constitutional 
right  of  the  Gcernmci     to  build  a  railroad  or  aid  in  the 


'S'\ 


ll'l 


90 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


building  of  one.  Shortly  afterward  William  H.  Seward, 
then  a  Senator  from  New  York,  brought  forward  a  bill 
for  a  road  from  the  western  border  of  some  State  west  of 
the  Missouri  River  to  the  eastern  boundary  of  California. 
In  this  and  subsequent  legislation  proposed  or  enacted 
in  reference  to  the  Pacific  railroad,  the  principle  was  fol- 
lowed that  Congress  had  no  right  to  construct  a  railroad 
or  charter  a  company  for  the  purpose  within  the  limits  of 
any  State  ;  its  power  extending  only  to  the  Territories. 

Seward's  plan  was  that  the  Government  should  furnish 
money  directly  from  the  Treasury  to  build  a  road,  and 
get  it  ba^.i>.'  by  raising  the  pric  ^^  l-^rids  in  the  regions 
traversed  by  the  line.     About  1  ime   time  Senator 

Footc,  of  Mississippi,  presented  a  bi.  .'or  a  railroad  from 
the  Mississippi  River  to  California  by  x  Southern  route 
on  the  basis  of  a  small  land  grant.  The  Senate  refused 
to  take  up  either  of  these  bills,  and  there  was  so  much 
opposition  in  the  House  that  the  whole  project  of  a  Gov- 
ernment road  to  the  Pacific  was  dropped  for  a  time.  In 
December,  1854,  a  resolution  declaring  it  to  be  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  pass  an  act  providing  for  the  immediate 
construction  and  early  completion  of  such  a  road  was 
tabled  by  a  vote  of  1 19  to  68. 

In  1854  and  1855  there  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  on  the 
subject  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  many  conflicting 
schemes  came  to  the  front.  Sectional  jealousies  and  ani- 
mosities cropped  out  continually  in  the  debates.  The 
strife  was  not  between  different  individuals  or  corpora- 
tions proposing  to  build  roads  with  Congressional  aid, 
but  between  different  States  and  sections  of  the  Union, 
anxious  to  make  whatever  project  j'hould  finally  be 
adopted  tributary  to  their  interests.  In  looking  back 
from  this  distance  of  time  nothing  is  very  clear  save  the 
sturdy  insistence  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  of  Missouri, 
that  the  line  should  be  a  central  one,  and  should  start 


from  tl 
active 
gold  fi( 
tinent. 


FUTILE    MOVEMENTS  IN  CONGRESS. 


91 


from  the  borders  of  his  own  State;  the  demand  of  the 
active  young  senators,  Gvvin  and  Weller,  fresh  from  the 
gold  fields  of  California,  that  a  railroad  across  the  con- 
tinent, by  whatever  route  it  ran,  should  end  at  the 
Bay  of  San  Francisco ;  and  the  clamors  of  the  Texans, 
Louisianians,  and  Mississippians  for  a  Southern  route. 

There  were  select  committees  in  both  houses  on  the 
general  Pacific  railroad  project,  and  in  1855  a  bill  was  re- 
ported proposing  that  three  lines  should  be  chartered 
and  aided  with  land  grants;  one  from  the  Western  border 
of  Texas  to  California,  one  from  the  Western  border  of 
Missouri  or  Iowa  to  California,  and  one  from  the  Western 
border  of  Wisconsin  to  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  or  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean  In  Oregon  or  Washington.  The  report 
of  the  Government  surveys  was  at  that  time  being  dis- 
tributed, and  there  was  very  little  concentration  of  opin- 
ion cither  in  regard  to  the  best  route  or  the  proper  means 
to  facilitate  construction  of  a  road.  Nevertheless  the 
Senate  passed  the  bill  on  February  loth,  1855,  by  a  vote 
of  24  to  21,  and  gave  to  each  of  the  lines  a  land  grant  of 
twelve  alternate  sections  on  each  side  of  the  track,  and  a 
contract  for  carrying  the  mails  at  $300  per  mile  per  annum. 
No  subsidy  in  money  was  given,  nor  does  it  appear  that 
any  individuals  or  companies  stood  ready  to  undertake  the 
work.  The  bill,  in  fact,  was  a  hasty,  crude,  semi-political 
measure — a  sort  of  pooling  of  issues  between  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  and,  had  it  become  a  law,  it  would 
have  been  wholly  inadequate  to  secure  the  construction  of 
even  a  single  road  to  the  Pacific,  much  less  three.  The 
House  passed  this  bill  in  a  great  hurry,  and  then,  appar- 
ently astonished  at  its  own  action,  reconsidered  the  vote, 
and  recommitted  the  bill  to  the  co'-  mittee,  from  which  it 
did  not  emerge  again  during  that  session. 

In  the  session  of  1856  a  new  bill  was  prepared  by  Senator 
WcUer,  of  California,  for  a  single  line  starting  at  the  Mis- 


i^ii 


92 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD 


souri  River,  to  be  aided  by  a  land  grant  of  twelve  sections 
to  the  mile,  and  a  Government  subsidy  of  $2,500,000  in 
bonds.  The  plan  was  to  have  sealed  proposals  for  build- 
ing the  road  submitted  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and 
the  Postmaster-General,  who  were  to  contract  with  parties 
making  the  best  oiTer  as  to  the  time  when  they  would 
agree  to  surrender  the  road  to  the  United  States.  This 
measure,  notable  from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  to 
embody  a  scheme  for  Government  aid  in  bonds,  was  de- 
feated in  the  Senate  by  a  refusal  to  consider  it.  The 
same  bill  was  presented  in  the  House,  and  although 
favorably  reported  from  a  committee,  met  a  like  fate. 

President  Buchanan  took  much  more  decided  ground 
in  favor  of  the  Pacific  railroad  than  President  Pierce  had 
ventured  to  do.  In  his  inaugural  address  and  in  his  first 
message  sent  to  Congress  in  December,  1857,  Buchanan 
advocated  the  building  of  a  re  ad  wi'^i  Government  aid,  as 
a  military  necessity,  and  found  constituti-inal  warrant  in 
the  power  given  the  General  Government  to  provide  for 
national  defence.  The  project  had  not  grown  in  favor, 
however,  and  the  usual  motion  to  raise  a  select  committee 
to  consider  it  narrowly  escaped  defeat  in  the  House. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  skirmishing  over  the  different 
routes  proposed,  and  long  arguments  drawn  from  the  re- 
ports of  the  army  surveys  were  thrown  into  the  debates, 
'ihc  Senate  committee  reported  a  bill  authorizing  the 
President  to  contract  for  the  building  of  a  single  line,  the 
eastern  terminus  to  be  on  the  Missouri  River,  between 
the  mouths  of  the  Big  Sioux  and  the  Kansas  River,  and 
the  western  terminus  at  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
State  of  California.  The  successful  bidder  for  the  con- 
tract was  to  receive  twenty  sections  of  land  per  mile,  and 
a  subsidy  in  five  per  cent,  bonds  of  $12,500  per  mile,  and 
was  to  complete  the  road  within  twelve  years  and  sur- 
render it  at  the  end  of  the  specified  time  to  the  United 


FUTILE  MOVEMENTS  IN  CONGRESS. 


93 


States  to  be  turned  over  to  the  States  it  traversed, 
and  the  Territories  when  they  should  become  States. 
The  bill  went  over  to  the  ensuing  session,  when,  after  long 
debates  on  the  location  of  a  line  and  numerous  amend- 
ments, the  measure  was  so  changed  as  to  simply  give 
authority  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  advertise  for 
proposals  for  three  routes — one  from  Minnesota  to  Puget 
Sound,  one  from  Missouri  or  Iowa  to  California,  and  one 
from  Texas  to  California,  and  to  lay  the  proposals  before 
Congress.     In  this  shape  it  was  laid  upon  the  table. 

In  i860  the  same  bill  was  revived  in  the  Senate,  but 
no  action  was  taken  upon  it.  In  the  House  a  new  bill 
was  reported,  which  in  its  general  features  was  the  proto- 
type of  the  measure  subseijuently  passed  for  the  Union 
and  Central  Pacific  railroads.  It  contemplated  a  line  to 
start  from  two  points:  one  on  the  western  border  of  Mis- 
souri, and  the  other  on  the  western  border  of  Iowa,  and  to 
unite  and  run  as  a  single  line  to  the  border  of  California. 
Tlie  plan  of  bids  and  proposals  for  a  Government  con- 
tract was  dropped,  and  a  number  of  men  of  national  rep- 
utation were  named  as  corporators.  A  land  grant  of 
six  sections  to  the  mile  on  each  side  of  the  track  was 
provided,  and  a  subsidy  in  Government  bonds  of  $6o,CXX>- 
000.  Mr.  Curtis,  of  Iowa,  the  father  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Bill,  passed  two  years  later,  was  the  author  of  this  meas- 
ure. The  House  refused  to  pass  it,  and  sent  it  back  to 
the  committee. 

It  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  measure  of  i860,  both  the 
Northern  and  Southern  routes  were  dropped  from  consid- 
eration, and  the  idea  pressed  that  the  Government  should 
centre  its  favors  upon  a  single  road,  to  be  constructed  on 
what  was  known  as  the  middle  or  central  route.  In  the 
ensuing  year  the  matter  assumed  a  new  phase.  The 
House,  on  December  20th,  i860,  passed  a  bill  for  a  land 
grant  and  subsidy  to   both   the  Central   and  Southern 


94 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


routes.  So  little  consideration  was  shown  for  the  North- 
ern route  at  the  time,  that  an  amendment,  offered  by 
Governor  Stevens,  who  had  been  in  the  House  since 
1857  as  a  Delegate  from  Washington  Territory,  granting 
ten  sections  to  the  mile  for  a  road  from  the  Red  River  of 
the  North  to  Puget  Sound,  to  be  built  without  other  aid 
from  the  Government,  was  rather  contemptuously  re- 
jected in  the  House.  However,  the  New  England  sena- 
tors coming  to  the  aid  of  those  from  Wisconsin,  Minne- 
sota, and  Oregon,  were  able  to  put  an  amendment  on 
the  bill  in  the  Senate,  giving  a  subsidy  of  $25,000,000 
for  a  railroad  from  Lake  Superior  to  Puget  Sound.  A 
land  grant  of  six  alternate  sections  to  the  mile  on  each 
side  of  the  track  in  the  State  of  Minnesota,  and  ten  al- 
ternate sections  for  the  rest  of  the  distance,  was  also 
provided.  This  measure,  thus  amended,  stopped  very  far 
short  of  doing  equal  justice  to  the  Northern  route.  It 
gave  a  subsidy  of  $60,000,000  in  bonds  to  the  central 
route,  and  $36,000,000  to  the  Southern  route,  while  it 
gave  only  $25,000,000  to  the  Northern  route. 

The  amendment  was  offered  by  Senator  Wilkinson,  of 
Minnesota,  and  contemplated  a  line  from  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior  to  Breckenridge,  on  the  Red  River  of  the 
North,  and  thence  to  Puget  Sound,  with  a  branch  from 
some  point  in  eastern  Washington  Territory  down  the 
Valley  of  the  Columbia  to  Portland,  Oregon.  Here,  for 
the  first  time,  the  name  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road Company  appears  in  Congressional  legislation.  The 
bill,  as  thus  amended,  created  a  company  by  that  name, 
and  empowered  Charles  D.  Gilfillan,  of  Minnesota,  Na- 
thaniel P.  Banks,  of  Wisconsin,  and  Isaac  L  Stevens,  of 
Washington  Territory,  to  act  as  a  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners to  organ  e  a  company.  The  Wilkinson  amend- 
ment was  adopted,  by  a  vote  of  22  to  19,  and  the  bill 
then   went   back  to  the    House   for  concurrence.     The 


FUTILE  MOVEMENTS  IN  CONGRESS. 


95 


session  was  almost  at  an  end,  and  repeated  efforts  to  take 
the  bill  from  the  Speaker's  table,  to  get  it  before  the 
House  for  consideration,  failed  for  lack  of  a  two-thirds' 
vote. 

The  name  of  the  "  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany," did  not  obtain,  however,  its  first  legislative  recogni- 
tion in  the  action  of  the  Senate  in  1861,  for  as  long  before 
as  January  2Sth,  1857,  the  Legislature  of  Washington  Ter- 
ritory passed  "  an  act  to  incorporate  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  Company,"  with  a  capital  of  $15,000,000,  and 
authority  to  increase  it  to  $30,000,000.  This  company  was 
"authorized  and  empowered  to  survey,  locate,  construct, 
alter,  maintain,  and  operate  a  railroad,  with  one  or  more 
tracks  or  lines  of  rails,  commencing  at  one  of  the  passes 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains  between  the  Territories  of  Wash- 
ington and  Nebraska,  and  connecting  with  such  road 
passing  through  the  Territories  of  Minnesota  and  Ne- 
braska as  the  company  may  elect ;  thence  extending 
westwardly  through  the  Territory  of  Washington  by  the 
Bitter  Root  Valley,  crossing  the  Cceur  d'Alene  Mount- 
ains by  the  most  practicable  route  ;  thence  across  the 
great  plain  of  the  Columbia,  with  two  branches,  one  down 
the  Columbia  to  Vancouver,  the  other  over  the  Cascade 
Mountains  to  the  Sound,  with  a  connection  from  the 
river  to  the  Sound."  The  railroad  was  to  be  commenced 
in  three  years,  and  completed  in  ten  years  from  the 
passage  of  the  act.  Among  the  incorporators  were  Gen- 
eral Isaac  I.  Stevens,  first  Governor  of  Washington  Ter- 
ritory; Colonel  Wm.  Cock  ;  Elwood  Evans ;  A.  A.  Denny ; 
Judge  Wm.  Strong;  W.  S.  Ladd ;  ex-Senator  Ramsey, 
of  Minnesota  ;  and  General  James  Shields,  then  of  Min- 
nesota. 

This  legislation  grew  out  of  the  enthusiasm  of  Gov- 
ernor Stevens  for  the  Northern  route,  which  he  had  just 
finished  exploring.     Those  who  engaged  in  the  move- 


9<5 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ment  little  imagined  that  a  quarter  of  a  century  would 
elapse  before  railway  communication  would  be  opened 
from  Puget  Sound  and  the  Columbia  Valley  to  the  East. 
They  expected  a  rapid  development  of  their  beautiful 
country ;  and,  while  they  did  not  think  the  money  could 
be  raised  on  the  Pacific  coast  to  build  a  road  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  they  evidently  thought  that  an  organ- 
ized company,  with  a  charter,  would  be  the  first  practical 
step  toward  putting  the  enterprise  in  motion.  Nothing 
but  talk,  and  exuberant  writing  in  the  local  press,  came 
of  this  premature  effort.  The  company  existed  only  on 
paper,  and  in  a  few  years  died  a  natural  death. 

The  description  of  the  route  selected  for  the  proposed 
road  will  be  intelligible  when  the  fact  is  recalled  that, 
in  1857,  Nebraska  embraced  not  only  the  present  State 
of  that  name,  but  also  the  present  Territories  of  Dakota 
and  Montana,  while  Washington  included  the  present 
Territory  of  Idaho.  The  route  outlined  in  the  act  of  the 
Washington  Legislature  was  nearly  the  same  as  the  one 
now  followed  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  with  the 
exception  that  it  crossed  the  Cceur  d'Alfene  Mountains, 
instead  of  going  around  them  by  way  of  Lake  Pend 
d'Oreille. 


I'ould 
)cncd 
East, 
atiful 
:ould 
)  the 
•gan- 
rtical 
ihine 
came 
\y  on 

loscd 
that, 
state 
kota 

^SCIlt 

f  the 
:  one 
I  the 
ains, 
'end 


I?f 


CHAPTER  XI. 


JOSIAII   P 


\M  S    I'KOri.E  S   I'ACUIC    RAILROAD. 


c 
2 
3 

A 

o* 
> 

-5 
c 


Pciliain's  Business  Career. — The  "  Fallier  "  of  the  Cheap  Excursion  System 
— N'isioiis  of  u  Railroad  to  the  Pacific. — A  Current  Misapprehension  Cor- 
rected.— Perhani  Not  Originally  in  Favor  of  the  Xorlhern  Route. — 
T'le  Peo[)le's  Pacific  Railroad  Company. — Failure  to  Get  a  Charter  in 
Massachusetts. — Perham's  Speech  to  a  lioston  Meeting. — The  Company 
Chartered  by  the  Maine  Legislature. — Perham's  Appeals  to  Congress  for 
Aid.  —  Ilis  Impracticable  Plan  of  Raising  Moi-ey  by  .Small  Stock  Sub- 
scriptions. 

Ix  the  midst  of  the  rampant  sectional  jealousies  and 
the  confusion  of  conflictini^  local  projects  for  a  railroad 
to  the  Pacific  Coa;5t,  which  prevailed  at  Washington  pre- 
vious to  i860,  tiiere  appeared  upon  the  ground  a  man  of 
definite  purpo'-  nd  strong  will  who  knew  exactly  what 
he  wanted  to  id  who  had  sufficient  earnestness  and 

enthusiasm  to  convert  other  men  to  his  views.  This  was 
Josiah  Perham,  who  was  destined  to  play  an  important 
role  in  connection  with  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise. 
Perham  was  a  peculiar  character.  He  was  a  good  type  of 
a  class  of  men  who  have  the  genius  and  intelligence  to 
conceive  large  projects,  and  the  energy,  honesty  of  pur- 
pose and  perseverance  to  enlist  others  in  their  sup- 
port, but  who  kick  the  practical  talent  to  carry  them  for- 
ward to  completion.  He  was  born  in  1803,  in  Wilton, 
Franklin  County,  Maine,  under  the  shade  of  Old  Blue,  a 
sombre-looking  mountain,  whose  summit  was  once  an 
important  station  in  the  coast  survey.  In  early  life  he 
uas  first  a  country  store-keeper  at  East  Wilton,  and  after- 
ward a  woolen  manufacturer  at  Readford.  He  made  a 
fortune  in  what  was  known  in  Maine  as  the  great  Hallo 
7 


98 


NOR  TITER y  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


well  land  speculation,  in  the  days  of  President  Jackson; 
but  this  he  lost  soon  afterward  by  holding  on  to  his  in- 
vestments until  a  crash  came  and  made  him  a  bankrupt. 
Going  to  Boston  about  1842,  he  began  business  anew  as 
a  wool  commission  merchant.  Fortune  favored  him 
again,  and  he  was  able  to  accumulate  money  and  pay 
off  in  full,  with  interest,  all  the  claims  of  his  old  creditors, 
amounting  to  $35,000.  This  honorable  action  gained  him 
the  confidence  of  the  merchants  of  Boston,  and  onab'icd 
him  in  after  years  to  enlist  the  support  of  many  of  them 
for  his  railroad  enterprises. 

In  1849  Perham  failed  a  second  time.  He  was  about  to 
start  for  California,  by  the  Isthmus  route,  having  sent  his 
son  of  fifteen  years  in  advance  by  a  sailing  vessel,  when  he 
met  in  Boston  a  man  who  had  brought  to  that  city  a  paint- 
ing of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Niagara,  St.  Lawrence  and 
Saguenay  Rivers,  known  as  the  "  Seven  Mile  Mirror." 
Except  Banvard's  Panorama  of  the  Mississippi,  it  was 
the  first  thing  of  the  sort  ever  exhibited  in  this  country. 
Becoming  interested  in  the  painting,  Mr.  Perhani's  active 
mind  saw  in  it  a  way  to  replenish  his  assets.  He  devised 
the  cheap  railroad  excursion  system  ;  beginning  by  bring- 
ing into  Boston  small  parties  from  the  neighboring 
towns  at  reduced  fares  to  visit  the  "  Great  Mirror."  The 
idea  was  novel,  and  became  popular.  Country  people 
could  enjoy  a  day  in  Boston  and  visit  the"  Mirror"  at  small 
expc;  ,e.  The  railway  managers,  surprised  at  the  results, 
gave  the  scheme  their  co-operation.  Mr.  Perham  bought 
the  "  Mirror,"  went  actively  to  work  to  perfect  and  en- 
large his  excursion  system,  and  during  the  season  of  1850 
transported  over  200,O0O  people  to  lioston  by  the  various 
railroads  in  New  England  and  Canada.  He  continued 
the  excursion  business  for  many  years,  applying  it  to  sum- 
mer travel,  and  arranging  round  trips  with  tickets  good 
for  thirty  and  sixty  day.s — from  Boston  to  New  York, 


JOS/A/I  PER/IAM'S   PEOPLE'S  PACIFIC  RAILROAD,   gg 


thence  up  the  Hudson  by  boat,  to  Saratoga,  Niagara 
Falls,  Toronto,  Kingston,  down  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Mon- 
treal and  Quebec,  Portland,  and  back  to  Boston.  During 
the  winter  of  1 861-2,  while  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
was  encamped  near  Washington,  he  sold  excursion  tick- 
ets to  the  national  capital.  During  the  twelve  years  he 
was  enga^'^^d  in  the  excursion  business  few  names  were 
better  knc  \vn  than  his  to  the  general  public  of  New  Eng- 
land. The  railroad  managers  had  great  confidence  in 
him,  and  the  newspapers  called  him  the  father  of  the 
cheap  excursion  system. 

In  this  business  Perham  again  accumulated  money, 
and  possessed  a  comfortable  fortune  when  the  vision 
of  the  Pacific  Railroad  dawned  upon  him  in  1853.  From 
that  time  until  his  death  the  vision  haunted  him  night 
and  day,  and  he  could  talk  of  nothing  else  and  think  of 
nothing  else.  The  idea  took  complete  possession  of  him. 
He  seemed  to  feel  that  he  had  a  call  from  the  unseen 
powers  to  build  a  railroad  across  the  continent.  He  had 
unbounded  faith  in  his  ability  to  convey  to  others  his  own 
enthusiasm  for  the  project,  and  spent  much  of  his  time  in 
going  from  place  to  place  and  talking  about  the  great 
scheme  to  everybody  whose  attention  he  could  gain.  In 
this  respect  he  followed  closely  in  the  path  of  Whitney, 
but  he  did  not  at  first,  like  Whitney,  go  to  Congress  for 
aid.  His  idea  was  that  the  people  of  the  whole  country 
were  ready  to  come  forward  and  subscribe  small  sums  to 
the  stock  of  the  company,  which  in  the  aggregate  would 
amount  to  enough  to  construct  the  road.  This  fantastic 
notion  took  such  a  strong  hold  upon  him  that  the  most 
discouraging  experiences  failed  to  dislodge  it. 

In  order  to  remove  a  wrong  impression  generally  enter- 
tained, let  it  be  said  here,  at  the  outset  of  this  account  of 
Josiah  Pcrham's  career,  that  he  was  not  in  any  sense  the 
projector  of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise.    His  first  plan 


lOO 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


% 


was  to  build  a  railroad  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Bay  of 
San  Francisco,  and  to  this  he  held  firmly  for  nearly  ten 
years,  until  Congress,  in  chartering  the  Union  and  Central 
Pacific  Companies  in  1862,  left  him,  his  project  and  his 
friends  entirely  out  of  the  bill.  Only  then  did  Mr,  Per- 
ham  turn  to  the  Northern  route,  which  he  regarded  as 
the  best  alternative  scheme.  Asa  Whitney  proposed 
from  the  first  to  build  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  and 
only  changed  his  plan  after  the  settlement  of  California 
so  far  as  to  include  a  branch  from  the  Wind  River  Mount- 
ains to  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  Perham,  although 
familiar  with  the  claims  made  in  behalf  of  the  Northern 
route  and  well  acquainted  with  Governor  Stevens,  the 
most  conspicuous  champion  of  that  route,  whom  he  fre- 
quently met  at  Washington  between  1857  and  1S60, 
thought  only  of  the  central  line  until  his  efforts  to  ob- 
tain the  indorsement  of  Congress  for  his  original  scheme 
proved  abortive. 

Mr.  Perham  rallied  around  him  a  small  group  of  de- 
voted friends  in  Boston,  and  in  his  old  home  in  Maine, 
who  stood  by  him  very  faithfully  through  all  his  vicissi- 
tudes, and  advanced  money  for  his  needs  after  his  own 
fortune  had  melted  away.  These  men  were,  for  the  most 
part,  merchants  of  modest  means  and  small  influence, 
but  among  them  were  some  persons  of  considerable  prom- 
inence in  State  and  national  affairs.  The  records  of  Con- 
gress afford  no  trace  of  Perham's  movements  prior  to 
1859,  unless,  as  is  possible,  he  was  connected  with  the  Na- 
tional Pacific  Railroad  project,  which  frequently  appears 
on  the  record  in  the  form  of  a  bill  introduced  and  referred 
to  committees.  In  his  efforts  at  Washington  he  con- 
stantly met  with  the  objection  that  there  was  no  prec- 
edent for  an  act  of  Congress  chartering  a  railroad  com- 
pany and  giving  it  a  grant  of  public  lands.  All  previous 
land  grants  in  aid  of  railroad  construction  liad  been  given 


JOSIAH  PERHAM'S PEOPLE'S  PACIFIC  RAILROAD,     jqi 


to  the  States,  and  by  them  turned  over  to  companies  of 
their  own  creation.  The  States  Rights  Democrats,  who 
then  controlled  the  policy  of  the  General  Government, 
held  that  it  was  not  in  the  constitutional  power  of  Con- 
gress to  create  corporations.  President  Buchanan,  in  his 
annual  message  of  1858,  used  the  following  language  : 

"  r  s  freely  admitted  that  it  would  be  inexpedient  for  this  Government 
to  exercise  the  power  of  constructing  the  Pacific  Railroad  by  its  own  im- 
mediate agents.  Such  a  policy  would  increase  the  patronage  of  the  Execu- 
tive to  a  dangerous  extent,  and  introduce  a  system  of  jobbing  and  corruption 
V  no  vigilance  on  the  part  of  Federal  officers  could  either  prevent  or 

(I.  t.  This  can  only  be  done  by  the  keen  eye  and  active  and  careful 
supervision  of  individual  and  private  interest.  The  construction  of  tliis 
road  ought,  therefore,  to  be  committed  to  companies  incorporated  by  the 
States,  or  other  agencies,  whose  pecuniary  interests  would  be  directly  in- 
volved. Congress  might  then  assist  them  in  the  work  by  grants  of  land  or 
of  money,  or  both,  under  such  conditions  or  restrictions  as  would  secure  the 
transportation  of  troops  and  munitions  of  war  free  from  any  charge,  and  that 
of  the  United  States  mail  at  a  fair  and  reasonable  price." 

To  meet  these  objections,  Perham  endeavored  to  pro- 
cure a  charter  for  the  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company 
fiom  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  His  petition, 
signed  by  one  hundred  and  eleven  persons,  was  presented 
to  the  Massachusetts  House  by  Moses  Kimball,  of  Boston, 
on  February  20th,  1 859.  Among  the  signers  were  In- 
crease S.  Withington,  afterward  the  first  treasurer  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  Edward  S.  Philbrick, 
Daniel  Chamberlain,  W.  W.  Clapp,  Jr.,  present  editor 
of  the  Boston  Journal ;  Daniel  S.  Haskell,  editor  of  the 
Boston  Transcript ;  Curtis  Gill,  editor  of  the  Boston 
Commercial  Bulletin  ;  Roland  Worthington,  present  Col- 
lector of  the  Port  of  Boston  ;  Benjamin  F.  Cooke,  R. 
W.  Holmes,  Samuel  A.  Green  and.  Jabez  C.  Howe.  In 
aid  of  this  petition  another  was  filed  from  citizens  of 
Maine,  headed  by  the  name  of  Hannibal  Hamlin,  and  still 
others  from  various  parts  of  Massachusetts,  and  from  the 
States  of  New  York,  Illinois,  California,  Maryland,  Ten- 


102 


NORTHER  AT  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


nessee,  AlabaiT>a,  Kentucky,  Mississippi,  Ohio,  Oregon, 
and  Iowa.  From  these  petitions,  coming  as  they  did 
from  so  many  sections  of  the  country,  it  would  appear 
that  Perham  had  been  engaged  for  some  time  in  working 
up  his  project  of  a  State  charter,  or  possibly  he  used  with 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  the  petitions  he  had  col- 
lected with  a  view  of  presenting  them  in  Washington.  The 
route  described  in  his  own  petition  for  the  People's  Pacific 
Railroad  was  as  follows  :  "  From  the  Missouri  River,  at  a 
point  between  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  River  on  the 
north  and  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  River  on  the  south, 
and  from  such  point  by  such  route  as  maybe  most  direct 
and  practicable,  to  the  city  of  San  Francisco."  This,  it 
will  be  seen,  was  substantially  the  route  afterward 
adopted  by  the  Union  Pacific  Company. 

The  bill  chartering  Perham's  company  passed  the  Massa- 
chusetts Senate  on  March  30th.  In  order  to  give  it  force 
in  the  House,  Perham  arranged  a  meeting  at  Fanueil  Hall, 
Boston,  on  the  evening  of  March  31st,  which  was  presided 
over  by  Benjamin  F.  Cooke.  At  this  meetliig  Mr.  Per- 
ham made  a  speech,  in  the  course  of  which  he  gave  the 
following  outline  of  his  project : 

"  I  propose  to  get  a  chartir  from  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  by  the 
name  of  the  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  with  a  capital  o(  oiif  hun- 
dred million  dollars,  divided  into  shares  of  one  hundred  dollars  each,  to  build 
the  road  with,  with  the  legal  consent  of  Congress,  and  of  any  States  through 
which  any  pan  of  the  road  may  be  located. 

"  I  propose  to  go  before  the  masses  and  get  the  stock  taken  up  in  small 
sums  by  the  people,  asking  each  man  to  take  one  share  and  not  more  than 
ten,  and  requiring  ten  dollars  on  each  share  to  be  paid  when  the  subscrip- 
tion is  made.  Tiie  amount  of  such  subscriptions  will  be  so  small  that  the 
payment  will  not  be  felt,  and  yet  the  aggregate  amount  of  such  payments 
will  furnish  funds  sufficient  for  the  purpose. 

"  There  are  many  instances  where  the  smallest  items  are  paid  and  yet  the 
total  sum  is  very  large.  In  the  omnibus  and  horse  railroad  business  no  man 
misses  the  small  disbursements,  and  yet  the  aggregate  is  immense. 

"  By  a  recent  computation  a  most  astonishing  instance  of  this  fact  is  shown 


JOSIAH  PERM  AM"  S  PEOPLE'S  PACIEIC  RAILROAD.     lo^ 


to  exist  in  the  city  of  New  York.  By  a  reported  list  of  tlie  open  drinking 
saloons  of  tlaat  city,  it  appears  from  a  careful  examination  and  calculation  of 
the  total  receipts  of  those  places,  on  Sundays  only,  in  a  single  year,  it 
reaches  the  large  total  of  one  million  dollars.  This  total  is  made  up  of  five 
and  ten  cent  pieces. 

"  This  plan  of  accomplishing  this  end  and  of  meeting  the  expense  of  the 
construction  of  this  road  is  not  new  to  me.  It  has  been  a  subject  of  conver- 
sation with  me  for  the  past  six  years  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  not  the 
fust  person  has  yet  been  found  who  has  said  it  was  not  the  best  plan  pro- 
posed, though  some  great  men  think  any  efforts  for  this  object  useless  and 
visionary.  The  class  of  men  who  express  such  opinions  are  those  who,  from 
necessity  perhajis,  never  move  in  anything  until  some  other  person  shows 
them  the  way — slow-coach  men — o(T-ox  men.  The  question  has  often  been 
asked  me,  is  it  not  too  great  an  undertaking  for  a  private  corporation  ?  I 
have  given  the  President's  views  upon  that  subject,  and  I  know  the  masses, 
and  know  it  will  take  with  them. 

"  The  name,  the  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  to  be  owned  by  the 
people,  in  small  sums,  will  be  very  popular  and  will  go  through  the  country 
beyond  anything  ever  put  before  them.  Thousands  are  now  waiting  for  the 
books  to  be  open  to  subscribe  for  the  stock. 

"  I  do  not  want  to  get  this  project  into  politics.  I  want  the  7i'//(Vt' people 
of  ihe  country  to  subscribe  to  the  stock.  I  want  one  tiiilUon  people  to  sub- 
scribe for  one  share  each  and  the  road  is  built. 

"  I  want  t-ii<mty  thousand  people  of  Boston  and  IMassachusetts  to  sub- 
scribe for  one  snare  each,  within  two  weeks  after  the  books  are  open,  which 
will  give  it  such  force  as  to  sweep  the  whole  country  like  a  whirlwind.  I 
want  to  got  so  large  a  share  of  the  stock  taken  before  Congress  meets  in 
Decniber  next,  that  the  President  will  recommend  in  his  message  to  grant 
us  lands,  and  the  moment  we  get  a  grant  of  lauds  from  Congress  the  balance 
of  stock  not  taken  will  be  taken  at  once.  I  propose  to  have  aline  of  mag- 
netic telegraph  built  as  soon  as  we  have  got  y?//tv«  w/7.V(»«  dollars  of  the 
stock  subscribed,  and  will  endeavor  to  have  the  line  of  telegraph  open  dur- 
ing the  next  session  of  Congress. 

"  I  am  often  asked,  Why  do  you  seek  a  charter  in  Massachusetts?  My 
answer  is,  because  it  is  my  adopted  home.  I  know  the  press,  the  railroad 
people  and  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  they  know  me,  and  -^nwx  threat  men 
have  heard  of  me. 

"  I  ask  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  because  I  shall  have  associated  with 
me  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  country — live  men — who  will  put  their 
enerjjies  with  mine,  and  make  a  long  and  strong  pull  to  accomplish  this 
j^reat  work." 

The  meeting  passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  Perham's 
project,  but   they  were  of  no   avail,  for  the   House,  on 


104 


KORTJIERX  PACII'IC  RAILROAD. 


April  4th,  indefinitely  postponed  the  bill.  Failing  in 
Massachusetts,  Perham  had  recourse  to  his  own  State  of 
Maine,  where  he  had  many  friends  in  public  life.  The 
Maine  Legislature  gave  him  the  charter  he  wanted,  and 
passed  a  bill  incorporating  the  People's  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  which  was  approved  by  Governor  Lot  AI. 
Morrill  on  March  20th,  i860.  It  named  no  corpora- 
tors residing  in  a  dozen  different  States,  but  chiefly 
in  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  of  whom  fifty-one  were 
made  commissioners  with  power  to  organize  the  com- 
pany. The  location  named  for  the  road  was  "  from 
a  point  on  the  Missouri  River,  between  the  mouth  of  the 
Platte  River  on  the  north  and  the  Kansas  River  on  the 
south,  and  on  such  route  from  the  Missouri  River  through 
Utah  to  the  citv  of  San  Francisco,  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  as  near  as  practicable  to  the  present  traveled  mail 
route,  or  by  such  route  as  the  corporation  shall  deem  ex- 
pedient and  for  the  public  interest." 

The  original  intention  seems  to  have  been  to  select  the 
route  afterwards  taken  by  the  Union  Pacific,  under  its 
charter  from  Congress,  in  1862,  but  the  language  of  the 
People's  charter  was  broad  enough  to  embrace  a  northern 
route,  or,  in  fact,  any  route.  The  stock  of  the  company 
was  to  be  one  million  shares  of  one  hundred  dollars  each, 
and  no  person  or  company  was  to  subscribe  for  more 
than  one  hundred  shares. 

In  this  act  Pcrham's  impracticable  idea  of  a  popular 
stock  subscription,  embracing  people  of  all  conditions  in 
all  parts  of  the  country,  was  first  put  into  shape.  He  fancied 
that  a  million  of  people  would  come  forward  and  gladly 
pay  a  hundred  dollars  each  to  help  build  a  railroad  across 
the  continent.  In  his  imagination  he  communicated  his 
own  enthusiasm  for  the  project  to  the  entire  population 
of  the  United  States.  This  wild  plan  of  a  general  and 
spontaneous  subscription  to  stock  he  put  into  the  bill 


JOSIAH  PERHAM'S  PEOPLE'S  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.     105 


which  afterwards  passed  Congress,  chartering  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Company,  and  it  came  near  destroying  the 
enterprise  at  its  birth. 

The  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company  was  organized 
in  lioston.  Josiali  Pcrham  was  chosen  president,  Oliver 
Frost,  vice-president,  and  I.  S.  VVithington,  treasurer. 
Stock  was  issued,  and  it  would  appear,  was  sold  in  small 
sums  of  from  ten  dollars  to  one  hundred  dollars  to  a  few 
of  Pcrham's  friends.  The  history  of  the  scheme,  although 
brief,  is  not  very  clear,  owing  to  the  fact  that  many  of 
the  papers  concerning  the  company,  together  with  others 
relating  to  the  first  movements  for  organizing  its  direct 
successor,  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  were 
destroyed  in  the  great  Boston  fire. 

Pcrham  hastened  to  Washington  with  his  People's 
Pacific  Railroad  charter,  and  was  diligent  in  his  attend- 
ance upon  the  committees  and  in  the  lobby  of  the  two 
Houses.  From  that  time  forward  he  endeavored  to  ob- 
tain from  Congress  a  recognition  of  his  company  as  the 
one  best  entitled  to  Government  favor,  and  asked  for  it  a 
grant  of  land  and  money  to  aid  it  to  build  the  proposed 
railroad.  It  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Perham  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  development  of  the  subsidy  plan 
which  was  afterwards  made  the  basis  of  the  legislation 
for  the  first  line  to  the  Pacific  coast ;  but  finding  that 
plaif  growing  in  favor,  and  meeting  with  but  poor  success 
in  his  efforts  to  obtain  subscriptions  to  the  stock  of  the 
People's  Company,  he  was  naturally  ready  to  attach  it  to 
his  project.  We  shall  see  in  the  subsequent  chapter,  how- 
ever, that  he  had  not  abandoned  the  notion  that  it  was 
feasible  for  him  to  raise  sufficient  money  to  build  the  road 
by  direct  appeals  to  the  people  for  subscriptions  in  small 
sums  to  his  stock. 


M' 


wmmmmmm. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE    UNION   AND   CENTRAL   PACIFIC   CHARTER. 


Five  Praclicaljle  Routes  to  tlie  Pacific — Congress  Prefers  the  Middle  Route 
— Political  Considerations — TJireats  of  the  Southern  Element  in  Cali- 
fornia— The  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Bill — Perham's  Project 
left  out — Fruitless  Effort  in  the  Senate  for  the  Northern  Route — Passage 
of  the  liill — Its  tienerous  Conditions — Profits  of  Construction — The 
Route  Adopted  Follows  the  Emigrant  Trail — Amendment  of  the  Charter 
in  1864 — Condition  of  the  Northern  Belt  in  1862. 

The  Government  surveys,  as  we  have  seen,  disclosed 
the  fact  that  there  were  at  least  five  practicable  rotitcs 
for  a  railway  to  the  Pacific.  Each  of  the  lines  explored 
was  found  feasible,  though  there  were  marked  differences 
in  the  altitudes  of  the  mountain  barriers  to  be  overcome, 
and  in  the  character  of  the  country  to  be  traversed  in  re- 
spect to  its  fitness  for  settlement  and  cultivation.  The 
northern  route,  traversing  the  belt  of  country  first  made 
known  to  the  world  by  the  Lewis  and  Clarke  expedition, 
was  found  to  be  the  only  one  offering  a  soil  valuable  for 
farming  or  grazing  for  nearly  its  entire  length.  The 
country  along  the  middle  route,  after  leaving  the  prairie.'^ 
of  Nebraska,  is  mainly  barren,  save  in  the  basin  of»thc 
great  Salt  Lake  ;  the  more  southern  lines  west  of  the 
narrow  alluvial  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  traversed  and 
wastes  all  the  way  to  California,  relieved  by  only  a  few 
narrow  strips  of  irrigable  valleys  or  mountain  and  timber 
belts. 

The  beginning  of  the  civil  war  in  1S61  postponed  any 
determination  by  Congress  of  the  question  of  the  route  to 
be  favored  by  the  Government.  In  1862,  however,  when 
the  war  was  in  its  most  doubtful  stage,  political  consid- 


M 


ta 


K 


» 


icn 


SKI 


THE  UNIOX  AND   CENTRAL  PACIFIC  CHARTER. 


107 


cratlons  hastened  action  on  the  transcontinental  railway 
project.  California,  during  the  gold  fever,  had  attracted  a 
considerable  immigration  from  the  Southern  States.  The 
settlers  from  that  section  naturally  sympathized  with  the 
rebellion.  The  power  of  the  Government,  absorbed  in  the 
fierce  contest  raging  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande, 
was  but  feebly  felt  on  the  Pacific  coast.  A  separation  of 
California  and  Oregon  from  the  United  States,  and  the 
erection  of  a  Pacific  republic  or  empire,  was  freely  talked 
of.  There  were  also  bold  projects  of  a  rebel  expedition 
across  the  plains  to  conquer  California  for  the  South  with 
the  aid  of  its  Southern-born  citizens.  An  expedition 
from  Te.xas  did,  in  fact,  go  as  far  as  New  Mexico,  but  was 
driven  back  with  heavy  loss.  Meanwhile  the  loyal 
people  of  California  urged  upon  Congress  the  importance 
of  speedily  uniting  their  State  with  the  East  by  a  rail- 
road, as  a  political  as  well  as  commercial  measure.  So 
Congress  stopped  in  the  midst  of  the  great  task  of  pro- 
viding men  and  money  to  carry  on  the  struggle  for 
national  existence,  to  create  and  subsidize  corporations 
to  build  a  railway  across  the  continent.  When  the  first 
Pacific  Railroad  Bill  was  passed,  the  cannon  of  the  defiant 
enemy  could  almoL>t  be  heard  at  the  Capitol  in  Washing- 
ton. This  was  in  June,  1862,  shortly  after  the  defeats  of 
McClellan  on  the  Peninsula,  and  just  before  the  disas- 
trous battle  known  as  the  second  Bull  Run. 

This  bill,  approved  July  i,  1862,  was  substantially  the 
same  as  the  Curtis  bill  of  1861.  It  chartered  two  com- 
panies, one  to  build  from  Omaha  on  the  Missouri  River 
westward,  and  the  other  from  Sacramento,  in  the  State 
of  California,  eastward,  until  their  lines  joined.  At  the 
same  time  it  recognized  a  company  chartered  by  the 
Legislature  of  Kansas,  and  called  the  Leavenworth, 
Pawnee  and  Western  Railway  Company,  the  name  of 
which  was  changed  to  the  Union  Pacific,  Eastern  Divi- 


'mmns^anamm 


1 08 


NOKTlIERiV  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


sion,  and  afterwards  to  the  Kansas  Pacific,  and  gave  to 
that  company  like  grants  of  money  and  public  lands  to 
those  given  the  Union  Pacific,  for  a  distance  of  394  miles 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  through  the  State  of  Kansas. 
It  further  provided  for  branches  to  the  main  Union  line, 
leaving  the  Missouri  River  at  the  towns  of  Atchison  and 
Sioux  City. 

In  the  long  list  of  incorporators  named  in  the  bill, 
nearly  every  locality  and  interest  connecud  with  the  pre- 
vious movements  for  a  road  from  the  Missouri  River  to 
California  were  recognized  except  Perham  and  his  New 
England  friends  who  had  organized  the  People's  Pacific 
Railroad  Company;  they  were  crowded  out.  The  rudi- 
mentary organizations  chartered  in  New  York,  Missouri, 
and  Iowa  were  noticed,  as  well  as  the  California  Com- 
pany already  building  from'San  Francisco  to  Sacramento, 
while  every  little  town  on  the  Missouri  River  from  Sioux 
City  to  Leavenworth  was  included  among  the  eastern 
termini.  Perham's  friends  in  Congress  made  futile  efforts 
in  his  behalf.  Mr.  Lovejoy,  of  Illinois,  in  the  House  en- 
deavored to  have  the  People's  Bill  substituted  for  that 
reported  by  the  committee,  and  Mr.  Fesscnden,  of 
Maine,  spoke  of  the  People's  Company  as  comprising 
many  of  the  most  respectable  citizens  of  his  State.  Mr. 
Lovejoy's  motion  was  rejected. 

Not  much  was  said  in  the  course  of  the  debate  in  the 
House  about  the  northern  route,  but  the  Legislatures  of 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  had  instructed  their 
Senators  to  support  it  in  preference  to  any  other,  and 
Mr.  Doolittle,  of  Wisconsin,  offered  a  carefully  prepared 
amendment  in  the  form  of  additional  sections  to  the  bill. 
It  provided  for  three  engineers  to  locate  the  line  from 
Lake  Superior  to  Puget  Sound,  for  a  grant  of  alternate 
sections  of  land  for  twenty  miles  on  each  side  of  the 
track,  for  the  sale  of  the  land,  and  the  payment  of  ninety- 


THE    UNION  AND   CENTRAL  PACIFIC  CHARTER.     109 

three  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds  to  the  States  aiul  Terri- 
tories traversed  by  tlie  road,  which  were  to  turn  it  over 
to  the  company  undertalcing  the  construction,  as  sections 
of  twenty-five  miles  of  the  track  were  completed.  This 
proposition  the  Senate  rejected  by  a  vote  of  15  yeas  to  23 
nays.  The  original  bill,  which  had  passed  the  House 
May  6,  1862,  by  a  vote  of  79  yeas  to  49  nays,  passed  the 
Senate,  June  20th,  by  yeas  35,  nays  5. 

Under  its  provisions,  the  Union  Pacific,  starting  at 
Omaha,  received  a  subsidy  in  Government  bonds  of  $16,- 
000  per  mile  for  the  portion  of  its  line  traversing  the 
great  plains,  $48,000  per  mile  for  the  150  miles  across  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  §32,000  per  mile  for  the  remainder 
of  the  line.  The  aggregate  of  this  subsidy  for  the  1,033 
miles  of  the  road  was  $27,226,512.  The  Central  Pacific 
received  a  like  subsidy  in  bonds,  the  $16,000  per  mile 
grant  applying  only  to  a  short  portion  of  the  line  west  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  while  $48,000  per  mile  was 
given  for  150  miles  across  the  Sierras,  and  $32,000  per 
mile  for  the  long  stretch  of  road  through  the  deserts  of 
Nevada.  Thus  the  Central  Company  received  for  the  883 
miles  of  its  line  from  Sacramento  to  Ogden  a  little  more 
than  the  Union  Pacific,  the  total  of  its  subsidy  being 
$27)855>68o.  Each  company  obtained  at  the  same  time 
a  grant  of  public  lands  of  12,800  acres  per  mile  of  road. 

By  the  act  of  incorporation  of  these  two  companies 
the  subsidies  of  Government  bonds  were  to  be  secured  by 
a  first  mortgage  on  the  road,  but  before  any  progress  was 
made  in  the  work  of  construction,  an  amendment  to  the 
charter  was  passed  by  Congress,  on  July  2d,  1864,  allow- 
ing the  CO-  .pan  o  issue  an  amount  of  their  own  bonds 
cqn  '  le  subsidy  bonds  given  them  by  the  Govcrn- 

m  ,id  the  Gov     nment's  lien  was  subordinated  to  the 

ne\.  )onds  md  secured  only  by  a  second  mortgage. 
Economica  ly   used,   the  proceeds   of   the   Government 


no 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


bonds  would  have  been  sufficient  to  buiM  and  equip  the 
entire  road  from  Omaha  to  Sacramento.  In  effect,  the 
generous  legislation  of  Congress  in  behalf  of  the  two  com- 
panies uniting  to  open  the  first  line  of  railroad  between 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts,  operated,  first,  to  loan  them 
monc)'  enough  to  build  the  line  ;  second,  to  present  them 
with  a  large  area  of  public  land  ;  third,  to  authorize  them 
to  borrow  a  sum  equal  to  the  Government  loan  on  the 
strength  of  a  first  mortgage  ;  and  fourth,  to  allow  them  to 
issue  and  sell  stock  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars.  Under  this  arrangement  the  Com- 
panies practically  obtained  possessioii  of  about  2,000 
miles  of  railroad  without  investing  any  money  of  their 
own,  had  in  addition  a  large  surplus  from  the  Govern- 
ment subsidy  and  the  sale  of  their  first  mortgage  bonds 
and  of  the  stock,  and  owned  a  land  grant  of  nearly 
25,000,000  acres.  Under  these  exceedingly  liberal  and 
advantageous,  conditions  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  construction  of  the  road  proceeded  rapidly  from  botli 
ends  after  the  passage  of  the  amended  charter  by  Con- 
gress. The  time  fixed  for  the  opening  of  the  entire  line 
was  July  1st,  1876.  It  was  completed  May  loth,  1869. 
Its  progress  from  month  to  month  had  been  observed  by 
the  whole  country  with  great  interest,  and  its  completion 
was  an  occasion  of  general  rejoicing. 

It  is  fair  to  say,  in  this  connection,  that  the  Union  and 
Central  Pacific  Companies,  as  such,  did  not  realize  as 
large  profits  as  would  appear  from  the  foregoing  state- 
ments. The  cost  of  construction  was  made  unnecessarily 
great,  in  order  that  large  profits  might  go  into  the  pockets 
of  individuals  prominently  connected  with  the  companies, 
who  were  at  the  same  time  members  of  the  construction 
companies  which  took  the  contracts  for  building  the  line. 
Thus  the  nominal  cost  represented  not  only  the  actual 
necessary  expenditure,  but  a  very  large  margin  above  th. 


THE    UNION  AND   CENTRAL   PACIFIC  CHARTER.     \\\ 


same,  which  was  divided  as  profits  among  the  stockholders 
in  the  construction  companies,  and  enabled  them  to  realize 
large  fortune's.  It  should  also  be  said  that  the  land  grant 
of  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroads,  forming  the 
first  transcontinental  railway  line,  was  of  small  value  in 
proportion  to  its  actual  acreage.  From  the  looth 
meridian  of  longitude  in  Nebraska  to  the  timbered  slopes 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  a  distance  of  nearly 
1,500  miles,  there  is  very  little  land  available  for  agricul- 
ture. Of  the  entire  grant,  extending  from  the  ^Missouri 
River  to  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento,  more  than  one- 
half  consists  of  deserts  and  mountains  not  salable  at  any 
price,  and  the  greater  proportion  of  the  remainder  covers 
dry,  elevated  plateaux  and  narrow  valleys,  valuable  chiefly 
for  pasturage,  and  offering  small  inducements  to  farmers. 
The  route  selected  for  the  first  railroad  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  aided  by  the  national  Government,  followed  closely 
the  overland  trail  to  California  made  by  the  gold  hunters 
in  1849,  1850,  and  the  following  years.  That,  in  its  turn, 
had  followed  as  far  as  Salt  Lake  in  the  track  of  the  great 
Mormon  exodus  of  1847  ^"^  184S.  The  route  was  thus 
well  known  long  before  the  railroad  engineers  stuck  their 
stakes  upon  it.  The  overland  mail  traversed  it,  and 
passengers  were  jolted  through  in  stage  coaches,  which 
ran  night  and  day,  from  the  Missouri  River  towns  to 
Sacramento.  It  was  only  natural  that  this  familiar  route, 
leading  directly  to  the  cities  and  gold  mines  of  California, 
should  be  preferred  by  Congress  when  there  was  a 
question  of  a  railroad.  There  were  still  other  reasons  for 
the  choice.  Railway  lines  had  already  reached  the 
Missouri  River  opposite  the  new  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
towns,  and  in  California  a  road  had  been  built  from  San 
I'rancifjco  to  .Sacramento.  Then  there  were,  halfway  along 
that  portion  of  the  line  which  crossed  the  alkali  deserts,  the 
thrifty  agricultural  settlements  of  the  Mormons  around 


w 


112 


J\rOJ?T///?£Ar  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


K>     ' 


J4'- 


the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  in  the  Valley  of  the  Jordan, 
which  afforded  supplies  of  food  and  reinforcements  of 
laborers. 

The  friends  of  the  northern  route  were,  however,  not 
idle.  They  pressed  its  advantages  upon  Congress,  but 
at  first  without  much  effect.  In  1862  Minnesota  as  a 
State  was  but  four  years  old,  and  the  Sioux  Indians  had, 
in  that  very  year,  burned  her  frontier  settlements  and 
massacred  nearly  one  thousand  of  her  people.  Dakota 
was  a  buffalo  range  and  an  Indian  hunting  ground. 
Oregon  had  a  scanty  population  of  farmers  and  two  or 
three  small  towns,  whose  names  had  hardly  reached  the 
East.  It  seemed  hopeless  to  advocate  a  railroad  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia  at  that  time,  although  a  few  years 
before,  previous  to  the  gold  discoveries  in  California,  the 
route  of  the  Columbia  and  the  Missouri  was  the  only  one 
thought  of  in  Congress  or  the  country. 

In  1864,  when  the  amended  charter  of  the  Union  and 
Central  Pacific  companies  was  passed,  subordinating  the 
Government  loan  to  their  own  mortgage,  the  supporters 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  project,  represented  in  Congress 
chiefly  by  the  Senators  and  Representatives  from  Minne- 
sota, Wisconsin,  and  from  the  New  England  States,  were 
strong  enough  to  get  a  charter  and  a  land  grant.  They 
did  not  venture  to  ask  for  a  grant  of  money  or  credit. 
Their  plan  seems  to  have  been  looked  upon  by  most  peo- 
ple in  and  about  Congress  with  a  sort  of  sceptical,  good- 
humored  tolerance,  and  as  they  asked  nothing  but  land, 
which  was  supposed  to  be  of  no  value,  they  had,  as  wc 
shall  sec  in  the  following  chapter,  no  great  trouble  in  run- 
ning their  bill  through  side  by  side  with  the  Union  and 
Central  bill,  which  last  was  worth  fifty  millions  of  dollars 
to  the  promoters  of  those  corporations. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


PASSAGE   OF  THE   CHARTER   ACT. 


Perham  Transfers  liis  Efforts  to  the  Northern  Project— Thaddeus  Stevens 
Supports  the  People's  Pacific  Scheme — Defeat  of  the  Bill  in  the  House — 
A  Xcw  Bill  framed  creating  the  Northern  Pacific  Company — It  Passes 
the  House  and  Senate,  and  is  approved  by  President  Lincoln — Its  Prin- 
cipal Provisions — Pcrham's  Impracticable  Stock  Subscription  Plan — The 
Company  Prohibited  to  Issue  Bonds  or  Mortgage  the  Road — A  Doulde 
Land  Grant,  but  no  other  Government  Aid. 

After  the  failure  of  his  efforts  to  obtain  for  his  Peo- 
ple's Company  the  charter  from  Congress  to  build  the 
road  to  San  Francisco,  Josiah  Perham  made  a  stroke  of 
genius.  He  transferred  himself,  his  organization,  his  at 
guments,  and  his  friends  en  masse  to  the  Northern  route. 
This  shifting  of  position  was  effected  at  a  fortunate  mo- 
ment. The  Northern  project  had  no  conspicuous  advo- 
cate. Governor  Stevens  had  just  perished  upon  a  Virginia 
battle  field.  The  influence  of  his  remarkable  report  and  of 
his  vigorous  and  persevering  presentation  to  the  public  of 
the  merits  of  the  northern  route,  year  after  year,  had 
been  almost  sufficient  to  cause  Congress  to  adopt  it  with- 
out any  pressure  from  the  lobby.  When  the  Union 
and  Central  Pacific  bill  passed,  there  was  a  general  un- 
derstanding among  the  leading  men  in  Congress  that  a 
road  from  St.  Paul  and  Lake  Superior  to  Pugct  Sound 
should  be  commenced  at  no  distant  day,  with  the  aid  of 
a  liberal  land  grant.  The  time,  therefore,  was  auspicious 
for  Perham's  movement.  Me  had  attracted  considerable 
attention  at  Washington  by  his  earnest  arguments,  re- 
peated session  after  session,  in  favor  of  a  line  to  California. 
He  had  the  support  of  a  chartered  company,  numbering 
8 


114 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


among  its  directors  men  of  substance  and  respectability. 
He  wisely  determined  to  ask  for  no  subsidy  in  bonds, 
such  as  had  been  given  to  the  companies  building  by  the 
middle  route.  If  Congress  would  give  his  People's  Com- 
pany double  the  land  grant  given  to  the  Union  and  Cen- 
tral Companies,  he  was  confident  that  he  could  raise 
enough  money  by  a  popular  subscription  for  stock  to  build 
the  Northern  road.  The  facility  with  which  he  changed 
his  Maine  charter,  his  directors  and  stockholders,  from  an 
organization  to  build  a  railroad  from  the  Missouri  River 
to  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  to  one  to  build  from  the  head 
of  Lake  Superior  to  some  unknown  port  on  the  forest- 
clad  shores  ot  Puget  Sound  was  certainly  surprising.  The 
truth  is,  however,  the  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company 
was  Josiah  Perham,  and  the  men  associated  with  him 
in  it  were  his  personal  friends,  whom  he  had  indoctrinated 
with  his  absorbing  idea  that  he  liad  a  special  call  and 
mission  to  construct  a  railroad  across  the  continent. 

Mr.  Perham  gained  the  favor  and  friendship  of  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  at  that  time  the  most 
powerful  man  in  cither  branch  of  Congress.  As  the  dic- 
tatorial leader  of  the  dominant  party  in  the  House,  I\Ir. 
Stevens  shaped  all  important  legislation  in  that  body,  and 
rarely  failed  to  carry  through  the  measures  he  favored, 
and  to  defeat  those  he  opposed.  It  is  safe  to  say,  that 
without  his  support  the  Northern  Pacific  charter  could  not 
have  been  obtained  during  his  lifetime.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Committee,  and  as  such  reported 
to  the  House  on  February  15,  1864,  a  bill  "  granting  lands 
to  the  People's  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  to  aid  in  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  to  the  Pacific 
coast  by  the  northern  route."  In  respect  to  route  and 
land  grant,  this  bill  was  identical  with  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific bill  afterwards  passed.  Mr.  Stevens  silenced  criti- 
cisms on  the  score  of  the  magnitude  of  the  land  grant,  by 


PASSAGE   OF   THE   CHARTER  ACT. 


"5 


asking  Mr.  Holman,  of  Indiana,  if  he  believed  the  value 
of  the  lands  approached  the  value  of  the  subsidies  voted 
two  years  before  to  the  Union  Pacific  Company.  Objec- 
tions to  adopting  a  Maine  company  for  a  road  to  run  from 
Minnesota  to  the  Pacific  were  not,  however,  so  readily 
met.  A  carefully  prepared  speech  in  favor  of  the  bill, 
and  in  advocacy  of  the  claims  of  the  northern  route,  was 
delivered  by  L.  D.  M.  Sweat,  a  Democratic  member  from 
Maine.  Mr.  Holman  offered  an  amendment,  requiring 
the  company  to  transport  the  troops  and  property  of  the 
United  States  free  of  charge.  He  had  offered  the  same 
amendment  when  the  Ui  "mi  Pacific  bill  was  pending,  and 
it  had  been  rejected.  Now  k  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  55  to 
47.  Mr.  Donnelly,  of  Minnesota,  spoke  in  favor  of  the  bill. 
Mr.  Sloan,  of  New  York,  had  an  amendment  adopted 
requiring  the  road  to  run  north  of  the  45th  instead  of  the 
44th  parallel.  Mr.  Stevens  closed  the  debate,  and  the 
House  proceeded  to  vote.  Greatly  to  Stevens's  surprise, 
the  bill  was  rejected  by  yeas,  55  ;  nays,  66. 

After  this  defeat,  Stevens  told  Perham  he  must  fit  his 
scheme  to  the  temper  of  the  House,  and  must  drop  his 
Maine  charter  and  company.  On  the  23d  of  May  a  new 
bill,  which  had  been  prepared  in  the  Pacific  Railroad 
Committee,  was  reported  by  Stevens  and  recommitted. 
It  was  entitled  "  A  Bill  granting  lands  to  aid  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  from  Lake 
Superior  to  Puget  Sound,  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  by  the 
Northern  Route."  It  created  a  company  by  direct  char- 
ter, called  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  and  it 
named  as  corporators  all  of  Mr.  Perham's  best  friends  in 
Maine  and  Massachusetts  who  had  aided  him  in  the 
People's  movement,  and  in  addition  many  eminent  capi- 
talists, railroad  men  and  politicians  living  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  such  as  John  C.  Fremont,  George 
Opdyke  and  Chauncey  Vibbard,  of  New  York  ;  R.  D. 


1^ 


li6 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Rice  and  A.  P.  Morrill,  of  Maine  ;  George  W.  Cass  and  J. 
Edgar  Thompson,  of  Pennsylvania;  Onslow  Stearns  and 
William  E.  Chandler,  of  New  Hampshire  ;  Cyrus  Aldrich, 
of  Minnesota;  John  Gregory  Smith,  of  Vermont;  U.  S. 
Grant  and  Wm.  B.  Ogden,  of  Illinois;  W.  Prescott  Smith 
and  John  H.  B.  Latrobe,  of  Maryland  ;  John  A.  Bingham 
and  Philo  Chamberlain,  of  Ohio  ;  and  Alexander  Mitchell, 
of  Wisconsin.  The  bill  came  before  the  House  on  May 
31st,  on  amotion  to  reconsider  the  vote  recommitting  it, 
and  after  a  {g.\\  questions  had  been  answered  by  Thaddcus 
Stevens,  it  was  passed — yeas  74;  nays  50. 

The  bill  was  reported  favorably  from  the  Senate  com- 
mittee June  27th,  with  numerous  minor  amendments,  and 
one  which  was  important,  binding  the  Government  to  ex- 
tinguish the  titles  of  Indian  tribes  to  lands  embraced  within 
the  area  of  the  grant.  It  passed  the  same  day  without  a 
division.  The  House  disagreed  to  the  amendments,  and 
a  committee  of  conference  was  appointed,  consisting  of 
J.  R.  Doolittle,  of  Wisconsin,  Ira  Harris,  of  New  York, 
and  J.  W.  Nesmith,  of  Oregon,  on  the  part  of  the  Senate, 
and  Thaddeus  Stevens,  L.  D.  M.  Sweat,  and  Ignatius 
Donnelly,  of  the  House — all  conspicuous  friends  of  the 
measure.  The  committee  speedily  agreed,  their  report 
was  adopted  by  both  Houses,  and  the  bill  was  signed  by 
President  Lincoln,  July  2d,  1S64. 

The  readiness  with  which  the  two  Houses  of  Congress 
adopted  this  important  measure  was  due  no  doubt,  in 
some  part,  to  Perham's  indefatigable  labors  at  Wash- 
ington, talking  to  Senators  and  Representatives  about 
the  need  and  justice  of  Government  aid  to  a  northern 
line  to  the  Pacific,  and  of  his  ability  to  raise  money  to 
build  the  road  ;  but  it  was  due  still  more  to  the  education 
of  public  opinion  through  the  writings  of  Edwin  F.  John- 
son and  Isaac  I.  Stevens,  on  the  advantages  of  the  northern 
route,  and  to  the  growth  of  a  sentiment   in  the  country 


PASSAGE  OF   THE  CHARTER  ACT. 


117 


that  fair  treatment  of  the  Northwestern  States  and  Ter- 
ritories by  the  General  Government  required  that  a  rail- 
road should  be  built  to  the  Pacific,  connecting  the  waters 
of  the  Great  Lakes  with  those  of  the  Columbia  River 
and  of  Puget  Sound. 

In  its  provisions  for  organizing  the  company,  the 
Northern  Pacific  bill  followed  closely  the  bill  passed  two 
years  before  creating  the  Union  and  Central  Companies. 
The  corporators  were  made  a  Board  of  Commissioners, 
and  directed  when  and  where  to  meet,  how  to  organize, 
and  where  to  open  books  for  subscriptions  to  the  stock. 
After  two  millions  of  dollars  were  subscribed  and  ten  per 
cent,  of  the  subscriptions  paid  in,  the  subscribers  were  to 
elev^t  directors,  and  the  company,  havmg  first  formally 
accepted  the  charter,  was  to  be  duly  formed.  The  rest  of 
the  bill,  however,  differed  widely  from  its  prototype.  The 
land  grant,  instead  of  being  twenty  sections  to  the  mile 
of  track,  was  twenty  in  the  States  of  Minnesota  and 
Oregon,  and  forty  in  the  Territories;  but  there  was 
no  provision  for  a  subsidy  in  Government  bonds.  In- 
deed, in  order  to  remove  all  doubts  from  the  minds  of 
Congressmen  as  to  the  possible  future  effects  of  the 
bill,  a  clause  was  tacked  on  to  the  land  grant  section 
providing  "  that  no  money  should  be  drawn  from  the 
treasury  of  the  United  States  to  aid  in  the  construction 
of  the  said  Northern  Pacific  Railroad." 

To  Perham  was  due  a  novel  section  which  proved  a 
dead  weight  on  the  neck  of  the  enterprise,  until  it  was 
removed  in  1870,  at  great  trouble  and  expense,  by  the 
passage  of  a  bill  amending  the  charter.  This  section 
provided  "that  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  shall 
have  the  right  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  until  the  whole  capital  named 
in  this  act  of  incorporation  is  taken  up,  by  complying 
with  the  terms  of  subscription  ;  and  no  mortgage  or  con- 


ii8 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


i;ii: 


struction  bonds  shall  ever  be  issued  by  said  company,  on 
said  road,  or  mortgage  or  lien  made  in  any  way,  except 
by  the  consent  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States." 
This  section,  advocated  by  Perham,  the  outcome  of  iiis 
absurd  notion  that  a  million  of  people  were  ready  to  sub- 
scribe a  hundred  dollars  apiece  to  build  any  Pacific  rail- 
road, delayed  the  commencement  of  construction  on  the 
road  for  five  years.  The  charter  bound  the  company  to 
commence  work  within  two  years,  to  complete  not  less 
than  fifty  miles  a  year  after  the  second  year,  and  to  finish 
the  entire  road  by  July  4,  1876. 

Nothing  in  the  bill  gave  Josiah  Perham  and  his  asso- 
ciates of  the  People's  Company  control  of  the  charter ; 
in  fact,  the  other  corporators  largely  outnumbered  them ; 
but  the  project  was  generally  regarded  as  Perham's,  and 
there  was  no  disposition  to  deprive  him  of  an  opportunity 
to  carry  it  out  if  he  could. 


,  on 
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his 
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sso- 
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Mn; 
ind 
lity 


CHAPTER   XIV. 


ORGANIZING  THE  COMPANY. 

A  Board  of  Commissioners — The  Company  a  New  England  Concern — First 
Meeting  of  tlic  Board — Perham's  Speech — Ilis  Estimate  of  the  Cost  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Road — Exaggerated  Notions  as  to  the  Value  of  the 
Land  Grant — Subscription  Books  Opened — The  Original  Stockholders 
— First  Board  of  Directors — Officers  Elected. 

The  act  of  incorporation  named  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  persons  as  commissioners  to  organize  tiic  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company.  Doubtless  a  majority  of  these 
gentlemen  had  little  knowledge  of  the  project,  and  felt 
no  particular  interest  in  it.  Their  names  were  inserted 
in  the  list  by  friends  in  Congress  as  an  easy  way  of  pay- 
ing them  a  compliment.  Ex-Governors,  ex-Senators  and 
Congressmen,  the  then  general  of  the  army,  U.  S.  Grant, 
together  with  a  few  active  railroad  managers  and  a 
sprinkling  of  capitalists  swelled  the  list,  which  very 
properly  included  also  the  little  group  of  New  England 
men  whose  efforts  at  Washington  had  procured  the  pas- 
sage of  the  charter.  It  was  evidently  intended  by  the 
promoters  of  the  enterprise  that  the  company  should  be 
a  New  England  affair  so  far  as  its  management  was  con- 
cerned. The  charter  provided  that  the  first  meeting  of 
the  commissioners  should  be  held  in  Boston,  at  such  time 
as  any  five  of  the  commissioners  from  Massachusetts 
should  appoint.  On  the  first  of  September,  1864,  the 
meeting  was  held  in  Melodeon  Hall,  Boston.  Only 
thirty-three  of  the  commissioners  attended  it.  Of  these 
fourteen  were  from  Massachusetts,  four  from  Maine,  one 
from  New  Hampshire,  one  from  Connecticut,  two  from 
New  York,  one  from  Pennsylvania,  three  from  Michigan, 


120 


NORTH ERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


two  from  Missouri,  two  from  the  District  of  Columbia, 
one  from  Illinois,  one  from  Kansas,  and  one  from  Min- 
nesota. The  board  elected  as  its  officers:  Josiah  ?cr- 
ham.  President ;  Willard  Sears,  Vice-President  ;  Abicl 
Abbott,  Secretary;  I.  S.  Withington,  Treasurer. 

Mr.  Perham  made  a  speech,  over  sanguine,  as  were 
most  of  his  utterances,  for  he  was  an  enthusiast  by  nature, 
but  showing  a  clear  conception  of  the  magnitude  of 
the  project  and  remarkably  correct  ideas  of  the  character 
of  the  then  little  known  country  the  proposed  road  was 
to  traverse.  He  said  the  northern  route  was  the  shortest 
to  the  Pacific.  Nature  had  made  it  such.  Puget  Sound 
was  directly  west  of  Lake  Superior,  and  at  the  very  point 
where  the  coast  bends  inland  and  carries  the  Pacific 
waters  farthest  east.  It  was  also  the  most  central  route, 
as  any  one  would  see  by  looking  on  the  map.  It  was 
also  the  most  practicable  route,  for  the  mountain  ranges, 
the  great  obstacles  to  any  Pacific  railroad,  were  here  the 
most  depressed  and  most  easily  overcome.  There  were 
no  deserts  along  this  route — no  want  of  water,  or  timber, 
or  stone.  There  was  required  but  little  heavy  grading, 
tunneling,  or  trestle  work,  and  no  formidable  bridging. 

For  farming,  grazing  and  mining  purposes,  there  was 
no  parallel  zone  that  equaled  that  through  which  this 
road  would  pass.  Almost  every  acre  was  rich  in  soil,  or 
still  richer  in  mineral  wealth.  There  was  every  variety 
of  surface  and  scenery  that  could  give  pleasure  to  the  eye 
and  usefulness  to  the  diversif  d  employments  of  man. 
There  were  rich  bottoms  and  valleys,  undulating  plains, 
rolling  prairies,  solitary  hills  and  peaks,  mountain  spurs 
and  ranges.  There  were  innumerable  lakes  of  every  size 
and  form,  of  the  purest  water.  Also  countless  streams 
and  majestic  rivers,  with  rapids,  cascades  and  falls.  Forest 
and  prairie  alternated  throughout,  rendering  the  opening 
of  farms  easy  and  cheap.    Game  was  abundant,  and  would 


ORGANIZING    THE   COMPANY. 


121 


be  ample  for  meat  until  domestic  animals  could  be  intro- 
duced and  multiplied  to  any  desirable  extent.  The  cli- 
mate, too,  was  singularly  adapted  to  health,  activity  and 
length  of  years.  Free  from  the  extremes  of  moisture 
and  drought,  of  torrid  heat  and  arctic  cold,  it  was  exempt 
from  the  malarial  diseases  that  so  often  in  other  regions 
prostrate  strength  and  shorten  life,  or  render  it  miser- 
able. 

To  a  country  possessing  such  natural  advantages  the 
railroad  would  not  only,  with  astonishing  rapidity,  add 
population  and  wealth,  but  from  it  would  receive  its  best 
income  and  profits.  The  facilities  for  travel  would  cause 
its  corn  fields  and  gold  fields  to  swarm  with  agricultural 
and  mining  labor,  while  this  very  labor  would  in  return 
fill  the  successive  trains  as  they  passed  along.  Thus  the 
local  business  would  grow  with  the  road,  and  undoubtedly 
support  every  section  of  it  as  fast  as  it  could  be  finished. 
But  as  a  medium  for  a  more  extended  internal  and  a 
foreign  commerce,  this  road  must  command  the  highest 
consideration.  From  Lake  Superior,  westward,  it  would 
transport  tl  e  trade  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  and  its  dependencies,  including 
the  broad  valleys  of  the  Saskatchawan  and  its  tribuUiries, 
and  of  all  the  regions  of  the  Upper  Missouri  and  Colum- 
bia. From  the  same  points  east  and  southward  it  is 
already  connected  by  water  or  rail  with  all  the  great 
cities  of  Canada  and  the  United  States — and  through  the 
Atlantic  and  Gulf  seaports,  by  steam  and  sail,  with  all 
the  Trans-Atlantic,  West  Indian  and  South  American 
ports.  From  Puget  Sound,  its  western  terminus,  through 
the  broad  and  deep  waters  of  Admiralty  Inlet  and  Fuca 
Straits,  is  the  direct  and  nearest  route  to  the  great  Pacific 
emporiums  of  Russia,  China  and  Japan.  Hence  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  would  be  on  the  direct  line  of 
the  shortest  and  most  practicable  route  between  Europe 


122 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


and  the  great  silk  and  tea  producing  countries  of  Asia,  as 
well  as  of  the  great  wheat  producing  regions  of  America. 

It  would  become  the  grejit  commercial  artery  through 
which  would  flow  the  rich  and  varied  productions  of  the 
East.  Here  they  would  be  received,  and,  through  numer- 
ous connecting  branches,  distributed  throughout  the  land, 
thus  filling  our  country  with  activity  and  wealth,  aiul 
making  our  chief  cities  the  depots  and  emporiums  of  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  the  world.  From  a  national  point 
of  view  it  would  also  be  of  the  utmost  importance.  To 
the  Government  it  would  be  invaluable  in  the  tran'^'t  of 
mails,  munitions  of  war,  and  troops;  to  the  coui  tr)  in 
the  increasing  facilities  it  would  afford  for  travel,  tr.iiis- 
portation  and  settlement,  thus  adding  rapidly  to  its 
population  and  trade,  and  vastly  to  the  value  of  the  puJj- 
lic  domains. 

Mr.  Perham  estimated  the  entire  cost  of  the  road  at 
$120,000,000,  which  was  not  far  out  of  the  way,  but  when 
he  came  to  talk  about  the  value  of  the  land  grant  he  gave 
his  fancy  free  rein.  These  lands  he  said,  when  the  road 
should  be  built  and  the  business  fairly  started,  including 
town  and  station  sites,  would  certainly  average  ten  dollars 
per  acre,  making  the  sum  of  §473,600,000.  How  far  be- 
yond the  mark  he  was  in  this  statement  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  the  prices  of  land  sold  by  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company  have  ranged  from  four  dollars  an  acre 
down,  the  average  price  never  much  exceeding  two  dollars 
and  a  half. 

Mr.  Perham,  in  conclusion,  said  that  years  of  the  best 
portion  of  his  life  and  matiy  thousands  of  dollars  h.id 
been  devoted  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  ei'.terprise. 
"With  the  footsteps  of  time  and  the  avidity  of  death, 
in  summer's  heats  and  winter's  storms,  against  opposition, 
open  and  covert,  jeers  and  sarcasms,  alone,  or  aideil  on!}- 
by   those  he   employed,   and    the  charter   from  the   far- 


ORGANIZING    THE   COMPANY. 


123 


seeing  and  enterprising  State  of  Maine,  the  sole  en- 
couragement and  foundation  for  his  efforts,  he  liad 
struggled  on  until  a  point  had  been  readied  that  defied 
opposition  and  gave  assurance  of  success." 

The  officers  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  were  di- 
rected to  cause  books  for  subscriptions  to  the  capital  stock 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  to  be  opened  in  lioston, 
Massachusetts,  and  Portland,  Maine,  and  to  receipt  for 
the  cash  payments  often  per  centum  on  the  subscriptions 
rccpiired  to  be  made  by  thj  charter.  Then  the  meeting 
adjourned.  The  great  enterprise  was  launched,  but  its 
progress  was  painfully  slow  for  several  years  afterwards. 

The  next  move  in  obedience  to  the  charter  was  to  ojjcn 
the  subsc'lption  books.  The  law  directed  that  such  books 
should  bv*  opened  "  in  such  principal  cities  or  other  places" 
as  a  quorum  of  the  commissioners  should  determine. 
Evidently  the  selection  of  Boston  and  Portland,  and  the 
exclusion  of  New  Vt  rk,  Philadelphia,  and  other  large  cities 
was  for  the  purpose  keeping  the  enterprise  in  the  hands 
of  its  projectors,  until  a  lioard  of  Directors  could  be  chosen 
and  officers  elected.  It  was  necessary  that  20,CXX)  shares 
of  stock  should  be  subscribed  for  before  this  could  be  done. 
This  amount  was  exceeded  by  only  75  shares,  the  sub- 
scri|)tions  amounting  to  20,075  shares. 

The  following  is  a  list  oi  the  subscribers,  with  the 
number  of  shares  taken  i)\-  each:  Ab<>:l  .\bbott,  Soo; 
Cyrus  Aldrich,  2,000;  A.  W.  Baiifield.  2<:.o  ;  John  A.  Bass, 
I;  Jas.  M.  Beckett,  I  ;  Charles  ]k)Ug.iU;i\,  2,050;  (leorge 
lhi.;gs,  100;  Wm.  L.  Cavenaugh,  loo;  D.  W.  C.  Clarke, 
UX);  S.  C.  Fessenden,  4,000;  P.J.  I'orristall,  200;  Oliver 
I'rot,  1  ;  Nathaniel  (ireene,  Jr..  5;  John  Hancock,  i  ; 
J.  1'".  Ilowett,  100,  J.  II.  llersey,  loo;  Ogdcn  Hall,  I  ; 
N.  Ci.  King,  1,000;  A.  C.  King,  500;  J.  W.  Moore,  100; 
C.  S.  I'erham,  i  ;  Josiali  Perhani,  10;  Joseph  Perham,  1  ; 
J.  II.  Pope,  500;    Philander  Reed,  2,000;    Willard  Sears, 


124 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


2,ioo  ;  L.  D.  M.  Sweat,  i  ;  K.  B.  Scvvall,  i  ;  J.  S.  Scwall, 
I  ;  John  Toy,  2,000;  K.  H.  Toy,  100;  I.  S.  Withingtun, 
2,000. 

A  meeting  of  the  subscribers  was  held  in  the  Mer- 
chants' Exchange,  Boston,  on  December  6th,  1864,  and  a 
Board  of  Directors  was  elected,  consisting  of:  Josiah 
Perham,  I.  S.  Withington,  A.  W.  Danfield,  rhilandcr 
Reed,  Ogden  Hall,  Kiah  B.  Sewall,  Willard  Sears,  Abicl 
Abbott,  Nathaniel  Greene,  Jr.,  P.  J.  T'orristall,  John  A. 
Bass,  James  M.  Beckett,  and  Oliver  Frost.  The  Directors 
met  next  day,  and  elected  Josiah  Perham,  President ; 
Philander  Reed,  Vice-President;  Charles  S.  Perham, 
Secretary,  and  Increase  S.  Withington,  Treasurer. 

The  Board  of  Commissioners  now  went  t)Ut  of  existence, 
and  the  company  was  fully  organized  with  officers  and  a 
Board  of  Directors.  Nominally,  at  least,  it  had  §200,750 
in  its  treasury,  from  the  ten  per  cent,  payment  on  the 
stock,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  portion  of  this  sum 
was  ever  available  for  the  uses  of  the  company.  One  of 
the  first  acts  of  the  board  was  to  authorize  the  payment 
of  the  "costs  and  expenses,  in  time  and  money,  incurred 
in  obtaining  the  company's  charter."  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  money  went  back  to  the  subscribers  to 
the  stock,  and  that  their  subscriptions  were  gauged  in 
amount  to  correspond  to  the  amounts  of  their  claims 
against  the  company.  Six  years  later,  when  their  stock 
was  assessed  for  the  remaining  ninety  per  cent.,  they  ile- 
clined  to  pay,  and  allegcil  that  their  services  entitled 
them  to  the  stock  without  further  payments.  Tlu-  board 
then  in  control  of  the  company  thereupon  confiscated  llic 
whole  amount  of  these  original  subscriptions. 


wall, 
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it 


CHAPTER  XV. 


A   TRAXSKKR   OK   THE   l-liANCIIISE. 

Mission  of  Colonel  W.  S.  Rowland  anil  (lovcrnor  Frank  Fuller  to  Boston — 
I'uller's  S|iucch  before  tlie  Board  of  Trade — I lamillon  A.  Hill's  Interest — 
Report  of  a  Committee  Indorsing  the  Northern  I'aeifie  Fnterprise — An 
International  Line  Proposed — Co-operation  of  the  Railroads  from  lioston 
to  Canada  Secureil — 1'  :hani  at  the  Kii'l  of  his  Resourecs — Transfer  of 
the  Charter — A  Xew  Organization  Formed — Congress  Looked  to  for 
Means  to  Uiiikl  tlie  Road. 

LaTK  in  the  fall  of  1865,  Colonel  \Vm.  S.  Rowland  ap- 
peared in  Boston,  stylinc^  himself  on  his  cards  "  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad."  He  was,  in  fact, 
by  virtue  of  an  appointment  from  President  Perham, 
subsequently  confirmed  by  the  Board  of  Directors,  a  con- 
fidential re[)resentative  of  the  company.  With  him  was 
Governor  Frank  Fuller,  late  of  Utah.  Fuller  had  been 
Secretary  of  the  Territory,  and  for  a  time  during  the 
absence  of  the  governor  had  performed  the  executive 
duties.  The  two  men  were  good-looking,  good  t.ilkers, 
active  and  enthusiastic,  ami  could  make  public  speeches 
on  occasion.  They  had  been  adopted  by  Perham  as  con- 
spicuous members  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company. 
They  were  introduced  at  the  Hoard  of  Trade  rooms  in 
company  with  ex-Governor  Curry,  of  Oregon.  Rowland 
first  explained  to  Hamilton  A.  Hill,  a  shipping  merchant 
largely  interested  in  the  Canada  trade,  the  magnificent 
project  of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  coast.  Hill  took  an  in- 
terest in  it  at  once.  His  business  concerns  lay  in  the 
direction  of  increased  trade  with  the  liritish  Provinces, 
ami  he  naturally  thought  the  enterprise  should  be  an  in- 
ternational  one.     Rowland,  who  had   failed   to    interest 


•'     I 


m^ 


>smmi 


126 


NOKTHERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


mm* 


New  York  capitalists  in  the  project,  at  once  fell  in  with 
Hill's  itlea  of  makintj  Boston  the  Atlantic  terminus, 
usin^  the  Canadian  system  of  roads  as  far  as  constructed 
westward,  persuading  the  Canadian  Government  to  extend 
the  system  around  Lake  Superior  to  the  Red  River,  and 
building  thence  to  Puget  Sound  on  American  soil.  Hill 
got  a  hearing  before  the  Board  for  the  project.  A  mectiii^f 
was  held  in  the  Exchange,  to  which  the  leading  business 
men  of  the  city  were  invited.  There  was  a  large  attendance. 
Ex-Governor  Curry  made  a  brief  speech,  and  cx-Goverror 
Fuller  a  long  one  full  of  effective  statistics,  and  well  sea- 
soned with  eloquent  allusions  to  the  enterprise  and  intelli- 
gence of  Boston,  calculated  to  gratify  local  pride.  The 
meeting  was  enthusiastic,  and  was  followed  by  a  dinner  at 
the  Parker  House  in  honor  of  the  two  ex-Governor;  and 
Colonel  Rowland  and  the  Northern  Pacific  scheme,  at 
which  Mayor  Lincoln  presided,  and  General  Banks  and 
other  men  of  distinction  made  speeches.  The  project  now 
floated  on  the  tide  of  public  favor.  A  full  report  of  the 
Exchange  meeting  and  the  speeches  appeared  in  the  Ad- 
vertiser, and  there  was  much  talk  on  the  streets  and  in 
offices  and  counting-rooms  about  the  great  scheme  for 
connecting  Boston  with  the  Pacific  coast  by  a  direct  line 
yj\  railroad  tributary  to  the  New  I'.ngland  metropolis 
alone.  Hill's  next  step  was  to  move  for  a  committee  "to 
inquire  into  the  plans  for  the  construction  of  a  railroad 
from  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Superior  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  a.;  contemplated  by  the  Act  of  Congress  approved 
Juh'  2,  1864,  and  as  submitted  to  the  Board  by  Colonel 
Rowland,  and  particularly  to  consider  the  bearing  which 
the  completion  of  this  line  of  railroad  will  be  likely  to 
have  upon  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  prosperity 
of  New  En-land."  The  committee  was  appointed,  and 
consisted  of  George  C.  Richardson,  Edward  .S.  Tobey,  C. 
O.  Whitmore,  F.  \V.  Lincoln,  jr.,  E.  B.  Bigelow,  Alphcus 


A    TRANSFER   OF   THE  FRANCHISE. 


127 


Hardy,  Hamilton  A.  Hill,  Otis  Norcross,  and  Avery 
riumcr.  Every  Bostonian  will  recognize  in  this  list  the 
names  of  several  of  the  most  eminent  business  men  of 
the  city.  Mr.  Hill  wrote  the  report.  It  was  signed  by 
all  the  members  of  the  committee,  and  read  to  the  Hoard 
on  the  24th  of  November.  This  report  gave  to  the 
Northern  Pacific  project  the  first  indorsement  it  had  re- 
ceived since  the  days  of  Asa  Whitney,  from  men  of 
prominence  in  business  affairs,  who  were  able  to  back  up 
their  opinions  with  their  checks.  Perhaps  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  it  saved  the  project  from  perishing  from 
lack  of  public  interest. 

The  report  made  a  clear,  forcible  presentation  of  facts 
concerning  the  country  and  climate  along  the  northern 
route,  and  its  supposed  advantages  for  railway  construc- 
tion and  traffic  and  for  the  development  of  direct  trade 
with  China  and  Japan.  It  argued  that  the  northern 
route  was  the  only  one  which  could  be  shown  to  promise 
results  in  which  New  England  had  a  positive  and  direct 
interest.  "The  Central  and  Southern  routes,"  saitl  the 
report,  "  will  bring  the  Pacific  States  into  close  connec- 
tion with  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore  antl  New 
Orleans.  But  none  of  the  commerce  thus  to  be  de- 
veloped will  flow  near  or  towards  New  England  ;  it  will 
pass  altogether  away  from  the  northern  lakes  and  rivers, 
in  the  traffic  of  which  we  have  a  large  interest,  and  it 
will  not  touch  the  Northwestern  States,  with  the  pros- 
perity of  which  our  citizens  are  intimately  connected. 
We  may,  perhaps,  remotely  participate  in  the  intrrnal 
tr.ule  which  will  grow  up  under  the  improved  state  of  in- 
land transportation,  but  in  the  oxirland  business — the 
foreign  through  tralTic — seeking  a  port  on  the  Atlantic 
for  transmission  to  luirope,  we  tan  expect  to  h.i\  e  no 
share  whatever.  On  the  other  hand,  your  committee 
believe  that  New  England  will  have  a  positive  and  direct 


..^•A ^..ui«.^i^._ ;:r.-:.  \-.-'uB\i:^\<.i 


128 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


interest  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  being  brought 
into  connection  with  it  by  lines  now  in  operation,  and 
being  able  to  offer,  by  its  means,  superior  facilities  for  the 
commerce  of  the  Orient,  which  must  surely,  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent,  pass  over  this  continental  line."  The  re- 
port then  brought  forward  the  scheme  of  an  international 
line.  For  all  purposes  of  inquiry,  the  committee  said, 
New  England  and  Canada  might  be  considered  as 
having  one  and  the  same  interest.  The  Northern  and 
Eastern  States  had  a  common  interest  with  the  Canadas. 
and  vice  versd,  in  constructing  a  Pacific  railroad  wliicli 
should  add  to  the  profit  of  the  lines  in  existence,  and  make 
use  of  them  as  so  many  links  in  the  chain  of  communica- 
tion from  ocean  to  ocean.  The  Grand  Trunk  Railway 
had  been  pushed  to  meet  the  waters  of  the  central  lakes. 
It  might  be  extended  on  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior, 
but,  as  it  already  connected  at  Sarnia  and  Windsor  with 
American  lines  crossing  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  it  would 
seem  more  expedient  to  ally  its  interests  to  those  lines, 
rather  than  to  encounter  the  difficulties  of  construction 
fiirther  north.  English  capital  and  enterprise,  joined  to 
the  American  land  grants,  would  form  a  soun  .1  basis  for 
the  finances  of  the  road.  One  northern  road  to  the  Pacific 
would  for  many  years  to  come  answer  for  the  commerce 
of  both  countries.  These  sentences,  taken  here  and  there 
from  a  number  of  pages  of  the  committee's  report,  will 
show  the  character  t)f  the  plan  presented  to  the  capital 
andcomniLMcial  interests  of  Boston.  It  meant  to  make  the 
Northern  Pacific  a  joint  New  England  and  Canadian  en- 
terprise. 

About  this  time  Sir  Alexander  Gait,  the  Canadian 
statesman,  came  down  to  Boston.  A  dinner  was  given 
him  at  the  Union  Club.  Hill  was  an  old  acquaintance  of 
his.  Rowland  was  present.  The  Northern  Pacific  i)rojcct 
was  much  talked  about.     Gait  took  a  hearty  interest  in 


A    THAXSI-EK   OF   THE  J-RAXCIIISE. 


129 


it,  and  intimated  that  he  might  be  willing  to  accept  a 
scat  in  the  Board  of  Directors.  The  next  step  was  to 
obtain  the  co-operation  of  the  managers  of  the  railroads 
leading  from  Boston  up  to  the  Canadian  line.  Mill  and 
Rowland  undertook  to  see  President  Smith  and  lienja- 
niiii  F.  Cheney,  of  the  Vermont  Central,  George  Stark, 
of  the  Boston  and  Lowell,  Onslow  Stearns,  of  the  North- 
ern Railroad,  which  connected  those  two  roads,  and 
Judge  Rice,  of  the  Maine  Central. 

A  number  of  interviews  were  had  with  these  gentlemen 
in  Boston.  At  some  of  them  Pcrham  was  present  with 
a  few  of  his  Directors.  Perham  frankly  admitted  that  he 
could  not  go  on  with  the  enterprise.  Mis  plan  of  raising 
money  by  a  popular  subscription  to  interest-bearing 
frOck  had  proved  a  dead  failure.  The  company's  treasury 
v\v.s  empty,  and  it  had  no  credit.  Rowland's  salary  and 
::;.v)se  of  the  clerks  in  the  Nev/  York  office  had  not  been 
paid,  and  the  rent  was  in  arrears.  Perham  was  constantly 
pressed  to  redeem  the  obligations  he  had  given  out  freely 
at  Washington  when  the  charter  act  was  pending  in  Con- 
gress. Me  had  come  to  the  end  of  the  means  or  the  willing- 
ness of  the  few  men  of  capital  whom  he  had  drawn  into 
tlic  enterprise.  Disheartened  and  nervously  exhausted, 
he  felt  that  he  must  give  up  the  struggle.  Me  told  the 
Hoston  men  that  if  provision  were  made  immediately  to 
nuet  passing  claims  upon  him,  and  at  an  early  day  to 
pay  all  the  expenses  he  had  incurred  in  obtaining  the 
charter,  he  would  transfer  the  franchise  and  step  out. 

Perham  called  a  meeting  of  the  lioard  at  the  Merchants* 
Exchange  in  Boston.  The  meeting  was  held  on  Decem- 
ber 12th,  1865,  and  Messrs.  Briggs,  Sears  and  P^ssenden 
were  ajipointetl  a  committee  "  to  confer  with  certain  per- 
sons in  Boston  relative  to  placing  the  affairs  and  manage- 
ment of  the  company  upon  a  more  solid  and  permanent 
financial  basis,  in  order  to  insure  the  speedy  construction 
9 


130 


NORTIIERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


of  the  road."  At  the  Parker  House  that  evening  there  was 
another  meeting,  and  next  day  still  another.  Then  it 
was  resolved,  "  that,  in  consideration  of  the  faith  of  cer- 
tain gentlemen  in  Boston,  with  whom  our  committee 
have  been  in  conference,  being  pledged  to  use  their  influ- 
ence to  their  utmost  to  secure  subscriptions  to  the  stock 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  to  the  amount  of  $150,- 
000,  and  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  issue  of  $600,000 
worth  of  stock,  whenever  said  subscribers,  or  any  of  ihcm, 
shall  become  Directors  in  said  Northern  Pacific  Railroad, 
we,  the  Directors  of  said  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  do 
agree,  whenever  said  gentlemen  shall  affirm  their  readi- 
ness to  subscribe  to  .said  stock,  to  resign  in  our  lioard  of 
Directors  to  the  number  of  eleven  or  twelve  Directors  (jf 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  to  the  aforesaid  gentlemen 
of  Poston."  Messrs.  Briggs,  Sears  and  I'^mery  were  ap- 
pointetl  a  committee  to  negotiate  for  the  transfer  of  the 
control  of  the  franchise  of  the  company.  They  reporli.d 
the  same  day  that  the  conditions  of  the  transfer  had  been 
agreed  to.  Next  day  Hamilton  A.  Hill  was  maile  a 
Director  in  place  of  Ji.  S.  Adams,  who  resigned  to  j^ivc 
the  Boston  men  immediate  representation  in  the  Board. 
The  claims  against  the  old  organization  were  then  autliied 
by  a  committee,  and  an  issue  of  stock  authorized  to  pay 
them,  and  this  business  being  disposed  of,  eight  more 
Directors  resigned.  They  were  Messrs.  V.  VV.  Manso!!, 
Nathaniel  Greene,  Jr.,  Willard  Sears,  Abiel  .^Vbbotl,  1". 
W.  Emery,  Ogden  Hall,  James  M.  Beckett,  ami  Josiah 
Perham.  Their  places  were  filled  by  the  election  of  John 
(iregory  Smith,  of  Vermont,  George  Stark,  of  New  I  l.imp- 
shire,  Onslow  Stearns,  of  New  Hampshire,  P'rank  Fuller, 
of  New  York,  Benjamin  P.  Cheney,  of  Massachusetts, 
George  H.  Gordon,  of  Massachusetts,  James  C.  Converse, 
of  Massachusetts,  and  William  S.  Rowland,  of  New  \'ork. 
Other  changes  soon  followed,     R.  D.  Rice,  of  Maine,  and 


./    TKAXSFEK   OF    TJIE   FRANCHISE. 


131 


Joscpli     Clarke,  of  Vermont,  being   elected    new    mem- 
bers. 

The  new  board  contained  not  a  single  member  of  the 
original  I'erham  board,  and  no  one  remained  who  had 
served  at  any  time  with  Perham  except  L.  D.  M.  Sweat, 
of  ]\Iaine.  John  (iregory  Smith  was  elected  President, 
and  Frank  Fuller  Vice-President.  Mr.  Fuller  resigned  a 
few  months  later  and  was  replaced  by  Phineas  S.  I'isk, 
and  Mr.  Rowland  made  way  for  Geo.  F.  Richardson. 
Clias.  S.  Perham's  place  as  .Secretary  was  taken  by  Ham- 
ilton Hill. 

The  new  organization  was  strong  in  its  personality  and 
ill  the  capital  it  represented.    IMessrs.  Smith,  Stark,  Rice, 
and   Stearns   controlled    several   of  the  most   important 
railroads  in  New  I^ngland.     Mr.  Cheney  was  the  proprie- 
ti)r  of  Cheney's   Express,  and  was  largely   interested  in 
railroads.     Messrs.  Converse,  Richardson,  and    Hill  were 
iiiflucntial  business  men.     Mr.  Gordon  had  served  in  the 
army  as  a  general   officer,  and  was  expected   to  l)e  useful 
ill  directing  the  engineering  department  of  the  road.     A 
better  organization  for  prestige  and   force   could   hardly 
have  been   found  in   New  England.     It   was   weak,  how- 
cvtr.  in  the  fact  that  it  was  so  exclusively  a  New  I-liigland 
ciniccni.    The  new  directors  did  not  expect  to  put  money 
intii  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise  to  the  extent  of  build- 
ing ati\'  portion  of  the  road.    They  only  agreed  to  pa}'  the 
dcl)ts  of  the  Perham  organization.    Their  hope  was  to  get 
nioiic)'  by  the  help  of  Congress,  to   which  body  the}'  im- 
iiiciliatcly  a[)pealed  for  aid.     It  should  be  said,  however, 
in  their  behalf,  that  in  1866,  it  was  absolutely  impossible 
to  raise  money  by  stock  subscri[)tions  or  the  sale  of  bonds 
not  indorsed   by  the  Government,  to  build  a  railroad  to 
the  Pacific.    The  Union  and  Central  companies  had  great 
ilifficulty  in  obtaining  funds  even  on  a  first  mortgage,  al- 
though the   Government    furnished    them,    on  a   second 


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132 


NORTIIERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


lien,  bonds  suffi  ;icnt  to  pay  the  major  part  of  the  cost 
of  their  lines.  The  stock  put  out  to  pay  Pcrham's  debts 
and  claims  had  no  standing  in  the  market.  Under  these 
circumstances,  Smith  and  his  associates  looked  to  Con- 
gress as  the  only  power  which  could  save  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company  from  speedy  demise. 

Josiah  Perham  died  in  1868,  at  the  house  of  his  son,  in 
Boston.  His  last  days  were  embittered  by  the  reflection 
that  he  had  spent  many  years  of  his  life  in  an  enterprise 
which  he  could  not  carry  forward  to  fruition,  and  which 
others  had  taken  out  of  his  hands,  leaving  him  no  results 
from  his  labors  in  its  behalf.  The  money  he  received  from 
the  new  organization  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company 
hardly  sufficed  to  pay  his  debts,  and  the  stock  he  received 
could  not  be  sold.  After  his  death  it  was  redeemed  at  the 
rate  of  twenty-five  cents  to  the  dollar.  Like  Asa  Whit- 
ney, the  projector  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  Per- 
ham, its  first  president,  died  in  poverty. 


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111 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


APPEALS    TO   CONGRESS. 


V, 


J.  (Gregory  Smith's  Early  Career  — His  Plan  for  Co-operation  with  the  Can- 
ada Pacific  Company — Movement  for  an  Extension  of  Time — Opposition 
in  Congress  to  all  Land  Grait  Railroads — Thaddeus  Stevens'  Assistance 
— Two  more  Years  Allowed  for  Beginning  Work — l^ffort  to  Secure 
Government  Aid — A  Discouraging  Outlook — A  Guaranty  of  Interest  on 
Stock  Asked — Defeat  of  tlie  Guaranty  Hill  in  the  House — Attempt  to 
Revive  the  Bill  in  the  Senate — An  Indirect  Defeat  by  a  Majority  of  One 
— A  IMessing  in  Disguise. 

J.  Gregory  Smith,  who  now  came  ''nto  the  control  as 
President  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company, 
was  born  at  St.  Albans,  Vermont,  in  1818.  He  graduated 
at  the  University  of  Vermont,  and  studied  law  at  the  Law 
School  in  New  Haven,  which  he  left  in  1841  to  go  into 
practice  with  his  father.  He  continued  at  the  bar  until 
1855,  when  he  retired  from  general  practice,  retaining  the 
attorneyship  of  the  Vermont  Central  Railroad,  of  which 
corporation  his  father  was  trustee.  When  his  father  died, 
in  1S58,  he  succeeded  him  as  trustee  of  the  road.  In  1858 
he  was  elected  to  the  State  Senate,  and  again  in  1859. 
He  served  in  the  Vermont  House  from  i860  until  1862, 
and  was  Speaker  in  the  latter  year.  In  1861  he  was 
Chairman  of  the  State  Republican  Committee,  and  in 
1S63  was  elected  Governor,  r.  re-election  following  in  1864. 
He  held  the  office  until  0(  tober,  1865.  The  urgency  of 
the  ]?oston  gentlemen  who  had  undertaken  to  relieve 
Josiah  Perham  of  the  Northern  Pacific  franchise  and  pay 
Ills  debts  brought  Mr.  Smith  into  the  new  organization, 
and  the  presidency  naturally  fell  to  him,  as  a  practical 
railroad  man.    He  did  not  approve  of  the  Boston  scheme 


134 


NORTIIEKX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


for  an  alliance  with  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  of  Canada. 
His  plan  was  to  aid  the  Canada  Pacific  Company,  just 
chartered,  by  subscriptions  of  American  capital,  secure 
from  it  the  building  of  a  line  from  Montreal  to  the  Sault 
Sainte  Marie,  and  thence  through  the  Upper  Peninsula 
of  Michigan  to  connect  with  the  Xorthern  Pacific  at  the 
Wisconsin  boundary  ;  the  line  across  Michigan  from  the 
Sault  to  be  leased  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Compan\-. 
This  plan  would  have  made  Boston  the  seaboard  terminus 
of  the  Northern  Pacific,  and  the  Vermont  Central  one  of 
the  links  in  its  line  to  the  east.  Sir  Hugh  Allan,  who 
was  at  the  head  of  the  Canadian  company,  approved  tlic 
plan  and  held  numerous  conferences  with  Gov.  Smith.  The 
fall  of  the  McDonald  ministry  carried  with  it  the  Canada 
Pacific  scheme  as  then  organized,  and  also  the  Boston 
plan  for  an  international  line  across  the  continent  and  a 
tide-water  terminus  on  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  first  and  most  pressing  thing  before  the  new  Board 
of  Directors  was  to  obtain  from  Congress,  if  possible,  an 
extension  of  the  time  prescribed  for  beginning  work. 
The  ciiarter  act  directed  that  the  company  should  com- 
mence work  within  two  j-ears  from  the  approval  of  the 
act  by  the  President.  The  date  of  approval  was  July  2, 
1864;  consequently  the  time  allowed  for  beginning  con- 
struction expired  July  2,  1866.  It  was  already  January, 
1866,  when  the  Perham  party  turned  over  their  seats  on 
the  Board  to  the  Smith  organization.  The  company  had 
no  existence  except  on  paper  and  by  virtue  of  its  fran- 
chise. It  consisted,  in  fact,  of  a  few  hopeful  gentlemen 
who  had  clubbed  together  to  take  the  franchise  off  Per- 
ham's  hands  and  pay  him  and  his  associates  $102,000  to 
reimburse  them  for  the  expenses  they  had  incurred  in 
organizing  the  company.  There  was  no  money  on  hand 
to  begin  building  the  road,  and  no  plan  had  been  matured 
to  raise  funds.     The  only  definite  idea  of  the  new  direct- 


APPEALS    TO   CONGRESS. 


135 


ors  seems  to  have  been  to  fall  back  upon  Congress  for  a 
grant  of  Government  aid.  No  surveys  had  been  made, 
aiul  there  was  no  place  even  where  construction  could  begin 
for  the  sake  of  a  formal  compliance  with  the  charter. 

Perham  had  already  set  on  foot  an  effort  at  Wa.shington 
to  bridge  over  the  first  difficulty  by  obtaining  an  exten- 
sion of  time.  He  had  sent  Colonel  W.  S.  Rowland  as 
commissioner,  and  had  been  there  himself.  Rowland  was 
an  impecunious,  plausible,  ^-^If-important  person,  always 
in  debt  and  always  on  the  point,  in  liis  own  opinion,  of 
floating  some  scheme  with  "  millions  in  it."  lie  attached 
himself  to  the  Northern  Pacific  project  in  its  early  stages. 
He  had  considerable  organizing  talent,  however,  was  en- 
ergetic and  intelligent,  and  the  new  I^oard  made  him  a 
director,  and  continued  hirn  as  commissioner  at  Wash- 
ington, wishing  to  bring  to  bear  all  the  influence  it  could 
command  to  push  the  extension  bill  through.  The  task 
was  by  no  means  an  easy  one.  Hostility  to  all  land  grants 
had  begun  to  be  a  popular  cry.  Besides,  the  Northern 
Pacific  scheme,  as  we  have  seen,  had  almost  no  local 
strength  outside  of  New  England  and  Minnesota.  For 
a  while  the  case  looked  desperate.  Smith  and  Rowland 
rallied  the  friends  of  the  enterprise,  but  they  were  few  in 
number.  It  was  saved  from  destruction  by  the  powerful 
aid  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvanici,  then  the  leader 
of  the  House — a  man  who  for  ten  years  wielded  an  influ- 
ence in  Congress  scarcely  paralleled  in  the  history  of 
legislative  bodies.  A  land-grant  road,  known  as  the 
Union  Pacific,  Eastern  Division,  which  afterwards  be- 
came the  Kansas  Pacific,  was  at  the  same  time  seeking 
an  extension.  It  had  powerful  backers,  among  them 
Colonel  Thomas  A.  Scott,  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 
The  Northern  Pacific  people  wanted  to  join  forces  with 
Scott  and  his  associates,  but  Scott  felt  sure  of  getting  his 
bill  through  without   additional  help,  and,   thinking  an 


136 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


alliance  dangcM-ous,  declined.  When  Stevens  heard  how 
the  case  stood  he  said  he  would  look  after  the  Northern 
Pacific.  A  day  was  set  for  the  consideration  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Eastern  Division  bill,  and  when  it  arrived  its 
friends  were  on  hand  in  full  force.  Mr.  Stevens,  wIkj 
could  always  get  the  floor  when  he  wanted  it,  rose  and 
moved  an  amendment  in  the  form  of  an  additional  sec- 
tion providing  "  that  the  time  for  commencing  and  com- 
pleting the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  and  all  its  several 
sections  is  extended  for  the  term  of  two  years."  The 
Scott  party  did  not  dare  oppose  the  amendment  for  fear 
of  hazarding  the  passage  of  their  own  extension  measure; 
so  the  bill  passed,  and  the  first  danger  of  the  forfeiture  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  franchise  was  bridged  over. 

An  effort  to  secure  financial  aid  for  the  Northern  Pacific 
enterprise  ran  parallel  in  Congress  with  that  to  obtain  an 
extension  of  time  for  beginning  work,  in  the  session  of 
1866.  The  company  opened  an  office  in  Washington,  pam- 
phlets were  printed  presenting  it.-  claims  to  Congressional 
favor,  newspaper  articles  were  published,  a  number  of  the 
Directors  appeared  in  the  committee  rooms  of  the  capitol, 
the  President  and  Secretary  went  back  and  forth,  reso- 
lutions were  adopted  by  sundry  Boards  of  Trade  and 
Chambers  of  Commerce  indorsing  the  application  of  the 
company — in  short,  all  the  machinery  of  a  well-equipped 
movement  to  influence  Congress  was  set  in  motion. 

It  is  easy  now  to  lookback  in  the  light  of  nearly  a  score 
of  years  of  experience  in  the  relations  of  railways  to  the 
government  and  criticise  this  effort  of  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific managers  as  unwise;  but  at  the  time  what  they 
did  seemed  the  most  reasonable  and  business-like  thing 
for  them  to  do.  They  had  satisfied  themselves  that  a 
railroad  to  the  Pacific  coast  could  not  be  built  with  stock 
subscriptions  in  the  ordinary  way,  as  an  ordinary  business 
enterprise.     They  were   not  allowed  by  their  charter  to 


pic 
tral 


APPEALS    TO    COXGRESS. 


137 


issue  bonds,  and  if  they  had  enjoyed  that  privilege,  first 
obtained  four  years  later,  they  could  not  at  that  time 
have  found  a  market  for  their  securities.  The  land  grant 
did  not  afford  a  sufficient  basis  of  credit,  because  the 
land  grant  railroads  in  the  nearer  regions  of  Iowa,  Mis- 
souri, Nebraska,  and  Kansas,  had  millions  of  fertile  acres 
upon  the  market,  and  no  inducements  could  then  be  pre- 
sented to  persuade  settlers  to  go  beyond  the  forest  belt 
of  Minnesota  to  the  unknown  plains  of  Northern  Da- 
kota. In  short,  the  value  of  the  land-grant  was  all  in 
the  future,  and  capitalists  would  not  lend  money  upon 
it.  Besides,  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  had  tlie  exam- 
ple of  the  two  companies  just  chartered  to  build  the  Cen- 
tral line  across  the  continent  to  California.  Those  cor- 
porations never  dreamed  of  constructing  a  road  through 
the  most  uninhabited  spaces  and  over  the  lofty  mountain 
ranges  in  the  interior  of  the  continent  with  a  land  grant 
alone.  They  had  obtained,  at  the  outset,  a  loan  of  United 
States  bonds  amountingtoan  average  of  about  $32,000  per 
mile.  Not  satisfied  with  this  heavy  subsidy,  they  came 
to  Washington  in  1864,  the  year  the  Northern  Pacific 
charter  was  granted,  and  asked  and  got  from  Congress 
the  right  to  put  a  first  mortgage  upon  their  roads  to  the 
full  amount  of  the  government  loan,  and  to  subordinate 
the  government's  lien  to  the  position  of  a  second  mort- 


rrnfTn 


What  the  Northern  Pacific  asked  for  and  did  not  get 
was  modest  compared  with  the  generous  bounty  ac- 
corded to  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  companies.  It 
asked  a  guaranty  from  the  United  States  Government 
that  it  would  for  a  period  of  not  more  than  twenty  years 
pay  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent,  on  the  company's 
stock  to  the  average  amount  of  $31,000  per  mile,  or  $57- 
000,000  in  all.  The  company  was  to  relieve  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  whole  or  part  of  this  burden  as  soon  as  it 


I 


138 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


could  from  its  net  earnings,  and  it  was  to  surrender  to 
the  Government  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  all  lands  in 
its  grant  lying  on  tlie  south  side  of  its  track.  This  prop- 
osition seemed  fair  and  reasonable  to  many  of  the  leading 
men  in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  It  failed  of  passage 
when  put  in  the  form  of  a  bill,  from  two  causes:  first, 
the  organized  opposition  of  the  Union  and  Central  Pa- 
cific corporations  and  their  friends  in  Congress,  who  were 
naturally  hostile,  from  motives  of  self-interest,  to  the 
construction  of  a  second  line  to  the  Pacific  coast ;  and 
second,  from  the  influence  of  a  growing  public  sentiment 
against  Congressional  grants  or  subsidies  to  railroads  in 
the  West. 

The  bill  to  aid  the  Company,  entitled,  "  A  Bill  to 
Secure  the  Speedy  Construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  and  Telegraph  Line,  and  to  Secure  to  the  Govern- 
ment the  Use  of  the  same  for  Postal,  Military,  and  other 
Purposes,"  was  reported  to  the  House  by  Mr.  Price,  of 
the  Committee  on  the  Pacific  Railroad,  April  24,  1866, 
and  occasioned  an  animated  debate  lasting  three  days. 
The  opponents  of  the  bill  asserted  that  if  it  became  a  law, 
it  would  take  fitly  or  sixty  millions  of  dollars  from  the 
public  treasury  which  would  never  be  recovered ;  its 
friends  insisted  that  the  advances  of  interest  on  the  stock 
would  all  be  repaid  soon  after  the  completion  of  the  road. 
The  extravagant  estimates  of  the  value  of  the  land  grant 
printed  and  circulated  by  the  company  when  it  was  en- 
gaged in  the  futile  effort  to  sell  its  stock,  were  the  most 
effectual  weapons  in  the  hands  of  the  opposition  to  the 
bill.  Among  the  company's  advocates  of  the  measure 
were  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  then  the  leader 
of  the  Republican  side  of  the  House;  Wm.  D.  Kelley,  of 
Pennsylvania,  an  early  friend  of  the  Northern  Pacific  en- 
terprise ;  John  A.  Bingham,  of  Ohio,  now  Minister  to 
Japan;  William  Windom,  of  Minnesota,  afterward  Sena- 


APPEALS    TO    COXGPESS. 


139 


tor,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  again  Senator.  The 
leaders  of  the  opposition  were  Samuel  Randall,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, auci'.vard  Speaker  of  the  House;  Coluinbus 
Delano,  of  Ohio,  who  was  later  a  member  of  President 
Grant's  Cabinet;  Jolin  1'.  P^arnsworth,  of  Illinois,  and 
R.  P.  Spalding,  of  Ohio.  The  bill  was  finally  tabled  on 
April  27th,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Spalding,  by  a  vote  of  yeas. 
76;  nays,  56;  not  voting,  51. 

The  friends  of  the  Northern  Pacific  were  somewhat  dis- 
heartened by  this  defeat,  but  they  determined  to  go  to 
the  Senate,  in  the  hope  that  the  bill  could  be  got  through 
that  body,  and  that  the  House  would  look  upon  it  more 
favorably  if  it  came  with  the  Senate's  indorsement,  and 
that  a  majority  could  be  secured  for  its  passage  before 
the  close  of  the  session  or  at  the  ensuing  short  session  of 
1866-7.  The  Senate  Committee  favored  the  bill,  and  its 
chairman,  Mr.  Howard,  of  Michigan,  brought  it  up  for 
consideration  on  the  14th  of  July.  It  was  sharply  at- 
tacked by  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  who  asserted  that  it 
would  cost  the  Government  $120,000,000,  and  argued  that 
Congress,  in  giving  the  company  double  the  land  grant 
per  mile  given  to  another  road,  had  been  sufficiently 
generous.  He  was  supported  by  Mr.  P'esscnden,  of 
Maine,  who  then  wielded  great  influence  in  the  Senate. 
Conspicuous  advocates  of  the  bill,  besides  Mr.  Howard, 
were  Mr.  Williams,  of  Oregon,  Mr.  Cragin,  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  Mr.  Ramsey  of  Minnesota.  The  ses- 
sion was  too  far  spent  for  a  thorough  consideration  of  the 
measure,  and  it  was  practically  defeated  on  the  i6th  by 
a  recommittal  to  the  Committee  reporting  it — the  vote 
being,  yeas,  20;  nays,  19. 

In  effect,  this  adverse  majority  of  one  disposed  of  the 
whole  scheme  of  building  the  road  with  financial  aid  from 
the  Government.  Renewed  effort  was  made  at  subse- 
quent  sessions,  as   we    shall    see    in    other  chapters,   to 


I40 


KORTJIERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


revive  the  rejected  bill,  but  the  temper  of  Congress  was 
evidently  less  favorable  than  before,  and  no  progress  was 
made.  The  failure  of  the  bill  looked  at  the  time  like  a 
serious  and  perhaps  fatal  disi"  twi  to  the  Northern  Pacific 
enterprise.  In  the  end,  however,  it  turned  out  to  be  a 
benefit,  for  the  affairs  of  the  company  were  at  last  put 
upon  a  much  sounder  financial  basis  than  would  have  been 
possible  had  they  been  involved  in  the  entanglement  of  a 
government  loan.  In  view  of  the  experience  of  the  rail- 
roads constructed  with  government  subsidies,  there  can 
be  no  question  that  the  debt  of  the  Northern  Pacific  on 
its  completion  will  be  considerably  less  than  it  would  have 
been  if  Congress  had  consented  to  loan  the  company  the 
credit  of  the  nation  and  to  indorse  its  interest  obligations. 


;  ^vas 

i   WilS 

ike  ;i 
acific 
be  a 
;  put 
been 
;  of  a 
:  rail- 
;  can 
ric  on 
have 
y  the 
tions. 


.-! 


■-\ 


[|r 


CHAPTER    XVII. 


THE   ORIGINAL   INTERESTS   AGREEMENT. 


Weakness  of  the  Northern  Pnc'fic  as  a  purely  New  England  Enterprise— 
Gov.  Smith's  I'lau  to  Nationalize  the  Company — A  Railroad  Syndicate 
Proposed — William  15.  Ogden  Agrees  to  Join  it — The  Original  Interests 
Agreement  Formed — Twelve  Shares  Provided  for — Edwin  F.  Johnson 
Appointed  Chief  Engineer — Surveys  Ordered. 

The  experience  of  President  Smith  in  Washington 
during  the  winters  of  iSC6and  1867  convinced  him  that 
his  organization  lacked  breadth.  It  was  too  purely  a 
down-cast  affair  to  command  the  strength  in  Congress 
nccc3sary  for  the  passage  of  any  measure  for  giving  it  the 
financial  support  of  the  Government.  Something  had  to 
be  done  to  widen  the  area  of  its  influence  if  the  enter- 
prise was  to  be  kept  alive.  Besides,  some  of  the  Boston 
gentlemen  associated  with  him  had  become  alarmed  at 
an  attack  made  in  Congress  upon  the  company  by  "  Long 
John  "  VVentworth,  of  Chicago,  on  account  of  the  plan 
for  a  Canada  connection  to  the  seaboard,  and  being  be- 
sides greatly  annoyed  by  claims  for  services  and  influence 
alleged  to  have  been  given  Mr.  Perham  at  Washington, 
were  eager  to  step  out.  In  this  situation  of  affairs,  Mr. 
Smith  conceived  the  plan  of  a  great  railroad  syndicate 
embracing  many  of  the  leading  roads  in  the  country.  To 
assist  in  carrying  out  this  plan  he  enlisted  Thomas  H. 
Canfield,  of  Burlington,  Vermont,  an  early  advocate  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  project.  Canfield  was  energetic  and 
fertile  in  resources.  It  was  agreed  that  an  effort  should 
be  made  to  secure  the  interest  and  influence  of  the  New 
York  Central,  the  Erie,  the  Pennsylvania,  the  Pittsburgh, 


<     I 


142 


XORIIIERX  1\ICIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago,  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  and 
other  lines.  Some  of  the  New  England  directors  were  ready 
to  resign,  and  it  was  manifestly  out  of  the  question  to 
push  the  great  enterprise  forward  on  the  narrow  basis  of 
exclusive  New  England  support.  Gov.  Smith  was  too 
busy  with  the  pressing  affairs  of  his  Vermont  Central 
Railroad  to  give  much  help  himself  to  the  new  plan,  but 
he  had  great  confidence  in  Canfield,  and  told  him  he 
would  back  him  up  in  whatever  he  did. 

Mr.  Canfield's  first  step  was  to  get  the  Northern  Pacific 
Charter  Act  printed  in  a  pamphlet.  He  then  went  to 
New  York  and  broached  the  ]:)roposition  of  transferring 
the  management  to  William  B.  Ogden,  President  of  the 
Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railroad,  feeling  that  if  he 
could  secure  his  support  there  would  be  slight  difficulty  in 
persuading  the  other  men  whom  he  had  in  mind.  Ogdcn 
appointed  an  evening  a  week  ahead,  at  his  home,  called 
Boscobel,  near  High  Bridge,  where  Canfield  succeeded  so 
well  in  interesting  him  in  the  project  that  the  two  talked 
about  it  from  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  till  midnight. 
Ogden  was  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Northwest.  No  man  in  his  time  was  better 
informed  upon  the  resources  of  that  section.  He  could 
talk  eloquently  by  the  hour  about  its  marvellous  growth 
and  its  great  future.  Of  all  the  great  railway  managers  of 
that  day  he  was  the  one  whose  indorsement  and  active 
support  was  of  most  value  to  the  struggling,  feeble  North- 
ern Pacific  scheme.  It  was  agreed  that  night  that  Gov. 
Smith  should  be  telegraphed  for.  He  came  down  from 
Vermont,  met  Canfield  and  Ogden  at  the  latter's  office, 
on  the  evening  of  January  lo,  1867.  A  financial  plan 
was  discussed  and  drawn  up,  which  afterwards  became 
known  in  the  affairs  of  the  company  as  the  Original 
Interests  Agreement.  As  a  basis  for  this  agreement, 
Smith  made  a  statement  of  the  amount  of  money  he  and 


THE   OKIGIXAL   INTERESTS  AGREEMENT.  143 


his  associates  had  expended  in  the  payment  of  Perham's 
debts,  incurred  in  procuring  the  charter,  and  in  keejiing 
the  company  alive.  It  amounted  to  $102,000.  Besides  this 
sum  they  had  issued  certificates  of  indebtedness  for 
$100,000,  and  had  agreed  to  recognize  the  $600,000  of 
stock  issued  by  the  Perham  party.  It  was  provided  in 
the  Original  Interests  Agreement  that  the  enterprise 
should  be  divided  into  twelve  shares,  each  to  be  valued 
at  $S,5oo,  or  one-twelfth  of  the  $102,000  already  expended 
by  Smith  and  his  associates.  Each  subscriber  to  the 
agreement  was  to  "  come  in  on  the  ground  floor,"  as  the 
phrase  goes  among  financiers,  paying  for  his  interest  only 
$8,500  for  a  twelfth  share,  and  having  a  joint  interest 
with  Smith  and  his  associates,  according  to  the  number  of 
shares  or  parts  of  shares  he  took.  It  was  agreed  by  the  sub- 
scribers that  the  best  efforts  of  each  and  all  should  be  given 
to  obtain  from  Congress  the  passage  of  a  bill  granting  aid 
to  the  company  for  the  construction  of  its  road,  and  for 
such  further  legislation  as  might  be  needed,  and  that 
each  should  contribute,  according  to  the  interest  which  he 
held,  the  necessary  funds  for  that  purpose.  In  this  last 
clause  lay  the  kernel  of  the  whole  matter.  The  subscribers 
were  nott  supposed  to  be  acquiring  anything  of  positive 
value  in  return  for  their  $102,000;  they  were,  in  fact, 
binding  themselves  to  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets 
from  time  to  time  and  pay  for  indefinite  expenses  to  be 
incurred  to  give  the  franchise  vitality  and  future  worth. 
Probably  there  was  not  a  man  among  those  who  subse- 
quently signed  this  agreement  who  felt  confident  at  the 
time  that  he  had  an  even  chance  of  getting  his  money 
back. 

It  was  further  stipulated  in  the  agreement  that  each  of 
the  twelve  shares  should  be  entitled  to  one  director  in  the 
company,  the  thirteenth  director  being  reserved  by  general 
understanding  for  the  Pacific  coast,  and  that  each  party 


144 


A'OKTIIEH.V  PACIFIC  KAILROAD. 


to  the  agreement  might  subdivide  his  interest  according 
to  his  own  choice;  the  subdivision  and  addition  of  new 
parties  should  not,  however,  change  the  manner  of  repre- 
sentation in  the  Board. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  before  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  were  fully  planned  and  put  upon  paper. 
There  was  no  gas  in  the  office,  and  candles  were  sent  for. 
At  last,  when  the  document  was  ready,  Mr.  Ogden  said: 
"  Well,  gentlemen,  is  there  anything  else  to  do?"  "Yes, 
there  is  one  thing  more,"  said  Mr.  Canfield,  "and  that  is, 
for  you  to  put  your  name  to  the  paper  for  one  of  the  one- 
twelfth  interests."  Ogden  signed  his  name,  and  Smith 
and  Canfield  left  him  to  walk  up  Broadway  together.  As 
they  passed  Trinity  church,  Gov.  Smith  said  that  he  felt 
that  a  critical  turning-point  in  the  Northern  Pacific  enter- 
prise had  been  passed.  Mr.  Canfield  soon  afterwards  ob- 
tained the  signatures  of  Robert  Berdell,  President  of  the 
Erie  Railway,  Wm.  G.  Fargo,  Vice-President  of  the  New 
York  Central  Railway,  D.  N.  Barney,  B.  P.  Cheney,  and 
A.  H.  Barney,  who,  with  Fargo,  had  large  express  com- 
pany interests,  Edward  Reilly,  a  friend  of  Thaddeus  Ste- 
vens, of  Pennsylvania,  G.  W.  Cass,  President  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh, Fort  Wayne  and  Chicago  Railroad,  and  J.  Edgar 
Thompson,  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 

On  the  31st  of  the  following  July,  the  "Original  Inter- 
ests Agreement "  was  modified  so  as  to  limit  the  amount 
to  be  assessed  upon  each  share  for  expenses  to  $12,500, 
including  payments  already  made,  unless  unanimous  con- 
sent was  given  to  the  assessment  of  a  larger  amount. 
There  was  some  redistribution  of  interests  made,  and  the 
signatures,  with  the  number  of  shares  or  parts  of  shares 
held  by  each  subscriber,  were  as  follows:  J.  Gregory 
Smith,  for  self  and  associates,  47^  shares;  W.  B.  Ogden, 
i'^  shares;  Robert  II.  Berdell,  I  share;  D.  N.  liarncy 
and  13.  P.  Cheney,  i  share  jointly;  A.  H.  Barney  and  W. 


G. 

Tho 
Reil 
twel 

Oi 
ofD 
Fisk 
of  ot 
ment 
elect! 
field 

Th 


THE  ORIGINAL  INTERESTS  AGREEMENT. 


145 


G.  Fargo,  i  share  jointly ;  G.  W.  Cass,  i  share ;  J.  Edgar 
Thompson,  for  self  and  associates,  i  share;  Edward 
Rcilly,  I  share.  This  arrangement  disposed  of  all  the 
twelve  shares. 

On  the  1 6th  of  May,  1867,  six  members  of  the  Board 
of  Directors,  Messrs.  Gordon,  Clarke,  Briggs,  Richardson, 
Fisk  and  Stark,  resigned  to  make  room  for  the  holders 
of  original  interests,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  agree- 
ment detailed  above,  and  their  places  were  filled  by  the 
election  of  Messrs.  Ogden,  Thompson,  Cass,  Berdell,  Can- 
field  and  Fargo. 

The  new  board  appointed  Edwin  F.  Johnson  Chief  En- 
gineer, and  ordered  him,  under  direction  of  the  President, 
to  commence  surveys  and  locate  a  line  between  Lake 
Superior  and  the  Red  River  of  the  North ;  also  to  explore 
the  western  end  of  Lake  Superior,  with  a  view  to  the  lo- 
cation of  the  Eastern  terminus  of  the  road.  He  was  further 
instructed  to  locate  the  line  from  Portland  toward  Lake 
Pend  d'Oreille,  to  make  a  reconnoissance  of  the  country 
between  the  waters  connected  with  the  Straits  of  Juan 
dc  Fuca  and  the  Columbia  River,  and  thence  eastwardly 
towards  the  eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to 
make  a  measurement  of  the  practicable  passes  in  the  Cas- 
cade Range,  and  to  report  the  result  of  such  surveys 
before  the  15th  of  November.  A  committee,  com- 
posed of  President  Smith,  A.  FL  Barney,  A.  S.  Diven 
and  Thos.  H.  Canfield,  was  appointed  to  collect  $25,cxx) 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  surveys  and  to  defray  the 
incidental  expenses  of  the  Company.  Thos.  H.  Can- 
field  was  appointed  General  Agent  in  New  York  to 
collect  assessments,  make  disbursements,  and  attend 
generally  to  the  business  of  the  company.  The  sub- 
scribers to  the  twelve  original  interests  agreement 
continued  to  make  advances  for  the  cost  of  surveys 
and  the  current  expenses  of  the  company,  until  they  had 


10 


146 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


furnished  in  the  aggregate  about  a  quarter  of  a  million 
of  dollars. 

In  the  following  December  an  executive  committee, 
consisting  of  the  President  and  Messrs.  Ogden,  Thomp- 
son, Cass,  Fargo,  Rice  and  Stearns,  was  appointed,  and 
charged  by  resolution  with  the  duty  of  presenting  a 
proposed  amendment  of  the  charter  of  the  company  to 
Congress,  authorizing  the  issue  of  bonds,  and  to  raise 
such  sums  of  money  as  might  be  necessary  to  meet  the 
incidental  expenses  connected  therewith. 

At  last  the  enterprise  seemed  to  have  been  put  upon 
its  feet.  Its  managers  were  among  the  foremost  rail- 
road men  in  the  country.  They  had  the  respect  of  the 
public  and  the  confidence  of  capitalists.  They  had  not 
yet  determined,  however,  t-o  abandon  the  impracticable 
scheme  of  securing  a  subsidy  in  bonds  or  in  the  form  of 
a  guaranty  of  interest  from  Congress,  and  instead  to 
place  the  project  upon  a  bi::.me55  footing  based  on  the 
traffic  the  road  would  develop  when  built,  and  the  value  of 
the  magnificent  land  grant  given  it  by  Congress — a  grant 
double  the  extent  of  that  given  to  the  companies  char- 
tered to  build  to  the  Pacific  by  the  Middle  and  Southern 
routes.  Indeed,  the  object  of  the  surveys  described  in 
the  following  chapter  was  not  to  prepare  the  way  for 
early  construction  so  much  as  to  strengthen  the  company 
at  Washington,  and  the  remarkable  alliance  of  railway 
men  represented  in  the  Board  of  Directors  was  not 
formed  to  give  strength  to  a  loan  or  an  issue  of  stock, 
but  rather  to  bring  influence  to  bear  upon  Congress.  The 
weakness  of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise  in  these  early 
stages  was  this  persistent  leaning  upon  the  Government 
for  help.  The  temper  of  Congress  and  the  country  was 
adverse  to  further  favors  to  land-grant  roads,  and  efforts 
to  pass  bills  in  face  of  this  hostile  spirit  were  thrown 
away.     If  the  time,  labor  and  money  spent  at  Washing- 


ilHon 

ittee, 
omp- 
,  and 
ng  a 
ly  to 
raise 
t  the 

upon 
rail- 
f  the 
1  not 
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■m  of 
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1  the 
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grant 
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(Torts 
rown 
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THE   ORIGINAL  INTERESTS  AGREEMENT. 


147 


ton  between  1866  and  1870  by  the  managers  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  had  been  devoted  to  a  sound  financial  scheme 
for  building  the  road,  it  would  have  been  completed 
earlier  and  many  troubles  and  much  needless  expense 
would  have  been  saved. 


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J 
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0 

M 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


SURVEYING  THE  LINE. 

Chief  Engineer  Johnson's  First  Report — A  Preliminary  Location  Made 
in  1S67— First  Estimates  of  Cost — Two  Surveys  Across  Minnesota- 
Choice  of  a  Lake  Harbor — Routes  Across  the  Cascade  Mountains  Ex- 
amined— W.  Milnor  Roberts'  reconnoissance  in  1869 — Gov.  Marshall's 
Expedition  to  the  Upper  Missouri — The  Rocky  Mountain  Passes — Ad- 
vantages of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  Route  over  the  Clearwater  Route — A 
Final  Survey  of  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains. 

Edwin  F.  Johnson,  appointed  Chief  Engineer  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  May,  1866,  pre- 
sented his  first  general  report  to  the  Board  of  Directors 
in  November,  1867.  At  that  time  surveys  in  Minnesota 
and  in  Washington  Territory  were  in  progress,  but  full 
reports  from  them  had  not  been  received.  Mr.  Johnson 
was  able,  however,  to  prepare  a  map  showing  a  prelimi- 
nary location  of  the  entire  line  from  Lake  Superior  to 
Puget  Sound.  The  map  indicated  two  routes  across 
Minnesota ;  one  starting  from  Superior  City  and  running 
to  the  Red  River  by  way  of  the  Crow  Wing  River  and 
the  Otter  Tail  Lakes ;  the  other  beginning  at  Bayfield 
and  bending  off  to  the  south  so  as  to  cross  the  Mississippi 
at  Sauk  Rapids,  and  thence  running  northwest  to  Breck- 
enridge  on  the  Red  River.  The  two  lines  converged 
at  the  bend  of  the  Cheyenne  River  in  Dakota.  Both  of 
these  lines  crossed  the  Red  River  at  points  considerably 
south  of  the  crossing  afterward  adopted  within  the  site 
of  the  present  towns  of  Moorhead  and  Fargo.  The  line 
across  Dakota  crossed  the  Missouri  near  Fort  Clark, 
about  thirty  miles  north  of  the  present  town  of  Bismarck, 
and  thence  ran  west  to  the  Yellowstone,  which  it  crossed 


SURVEYING    THE  LINE. 


149 


not  far  from  the  mouth  of  Glendive  Creek.  Instead  of 
following  up  the  valley  of  the  Yellowstone,  as  docs  the 
completed  road,  this  projected  line  was  run  on  the  high 
plateau,  north  of  the  river,  and  bending  to  the  north- 
west at  a  point  about  twenty  miles  north  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Big  Horn  River,  passed  between  the  Judith  and 
Belt  Mountains  to  the  great  falls  of  the  Missouri,  where 
it  crossed  that  river.  A  short  branch  was  indicated  to 
Big  Horn  City  and  another  to  Fort  Benton.  The  line 
ran  through  the  Gate  of  the  Mountains  and  up  the  Mis- 
souri and  the  Dearborn  rivers  to  Cadotte's  Pass,  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  On  the  western  side  of  the  Moun- 
tains the  route  was  about  the  same  as  that  subsequently 
adopted,  following  down  the  Hell  Gate  River,  crossing  to 
the  Jocko,  and  descending  that  stream  and  the  Clarke's 
Fork  of  the  Columbia  to  Lake  Pend  d'Oreillc,  from 
whence  it  ran  straight  to  the  mouth  of  the  Snake  River. 
The  route  to  Puget  Sound  was  by  way  of  the  Valley  of 
the  Yakima  and  the  Snoqualmie  Pass  to  Seattle. 

This  line  was  largely  a  theoretical  one,  and  was  based 
chiefly  on  the  reports  of  the  Government  Pacific  Railroad 
expedition  under  Governor  Stevens  and  that  of  Captain 
Reynolds  which  surveyed  the  Yellowstone  Valley  in  1859 
and  i860.  It  differed  from  the  line  indicated  in  an  earlier 
map  prepared  when  the  bill  chartering  the  company  was 
before  Congress,  in  crossing  from  the  Missouri  to  the 
Yellowstone,  instead  of  following  the  north  bank  of  the 
Missouri  up  to  the  Great  Falls  as  Stevens  had  recom- 
mended. Mr.  Johnson's  report  displayed  a  knowledge 
of  the  country  the  road  was  to  traverse  and  the  engineer- 
ing difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  which  was  remarkably 
thorough.  He  had  seen  no  part  of  the  route,  but  he  had 
so  carefully  studied  all  the  available  sources  of  informa- 
tion, that  his  report  can  be  read  with  interest  at  this  day 
as  a  fairly  accurate  description  of  the  region.     Mr.  John- 


I50 


NOHiJ/ER.V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


son  estimated  the  length  of  the  road,  from  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior  to  Puget  Sound,  at  1,755  miles,  and  to 
Portland  at  1,775  miles.  He  made  detailed  estimates  of 
cost  aggregating  $140,377,500  for  the  road  and  its  equip- 
ment to  Puget  Sound,  and  $16,480,000  for  the  Oregon 
branch  to  Portland,  the  average  cost  per  mile  being  $79,- 
421.  In  these  figures  he  did  not  include  the  general 
expenses  of  management,  interest  upon  loans,  or  discount 
upon  bonds.  He  dealt  only  with  the  question  of  con- 
struction  and  equipment. 

Systematic  surveys  on  both  ends  of  the  road  were  begun 
in  the  summer  of  1867  under  Mr.  Johnson's  general  di- 
rections. In  Minnesota  two  lines  marked  out  by  him 
were  run  by  Gen.  Ira  Spaulding  and  his  assistants,  W.  H. 
Ruggles  and  Col.  W.  H.  Owen.  One,  called  the  Crow 
Wing  Line,  started  at  Superior  Bay,  and  running  north  of 
Mille  Lac  and  south  of  Gull  Lake,  crossed  the  Crow  Wing 
River  about  sixteen  miles  northwest  of  its  junction  with 
the  Mississippi,  and  passing  near  the  foot  of  the  Otter 
Tail  Lake,  struck  the  Red  River  five  miles  north  of  the 
Sioux  Wood  Iliver. 

The  St.  Cloud  line  commenced  at  Bayfield  on  Lake 
Superior  and  bore  off  southwest  to  St.  Cloud,  whence  it 
ran  to  a  point  on  the  Red  River  six  miles  south  of  the 
other  line.  The  distance  from  Superior  to  the  Red  River 
by  the  Crow  Wing  line  was  232  miles  ;  from  Superior  to 
the  State  line  at  Sioux  Wood  Riyer  it  was  268  miles.  The 
question  of  the  best  point  for  the  eastern  terminus  on  Lake 
Su|)erior  was  then  an  unsettled  one,  and  lines  were  sur- 
veyed from  Duluth  and  Pleasant  Bay,  13  miles  from  Bay- 
field, as  well  as  from  Superior.  The  Crow  Wing  line 
from  Superior  was  estimated  to  cost  $2,878  less  per  mile 
to  build  than  the  St.  Cloud  line,  provided  the  latter 
started  from  Pleasant  Bay,  and  the  total  difference  of  cost 
was  placed  at  $3,848,500. 


SURVEYING    THE  LINE. 


151 


akc 

it 

the 

iver 

3r  to 


In  favor  of  the  Southern  or  St.  Cloud  line  was  the  fact 
that  much  of  it  traversed  a  rich,  cultivated  country,  and 
that  a  St.  Paul  connection  would  be  easier  to  secure  at 
Si.  Cloud  than  at  a  point  further  north  where  the  other 
route  would  cross  the  Mississippi.  The  engineers  re- 
I)orted,  however,  that  these  advantages  would  be  in  a 
great  measure  neutralized  by  the  increased  cost  of  the 
road,  and  by  the  fact  that  all  freights  must  incur  the  cost 
of  about  60  to  'j'j  miles  more  of  railway  transportation 
than  if  placed  on  shipboard  at  the  head  of  the  lake,  in 
case  the  St.  Cloud  line  should  start  from  Pleasant  Bay. 

The  search  for  a  good  harbor  for  a  lake  terminus  was 
confined  to  three  points — Chegwamigon  Bay  and  the 
Lake  Shore  behind  the  Apostle  Islands ;  Superior  l?ay  at 

ipcrior  City,  Wisconsin,  and  Superior  Bay  at  Duluth, 
Minnesota. 

On  the  Pacific  coast  the  surveys  were  placed  in  charge 
of  Gen.  James  Tilton,  formerly  Surveyor  General  of  Wash- 
ington Territory,  with  instructions  to  obtain  definite  in- 
formation as  to  the  number  and  elevation  of  the  Passes 
practicable  for  a  railway  over  the  Cascade  range  of  moun- 
tains in  that  territory  between  the  Columbia  River  and 
Puget  Sound,  and,  if  time  and  means  permitted,  to  extend 
a  line  of  survey  up  the  Columbia  River  valley  from  near 
Portland,  in  Oregon. 

Gen.  Tilton  arrived  at  Olympia,  Washington  Territory,^ 
on  the  28th  of  July,  1867,  and  dispatched  two  parties  under 
the  charge  of  J.  S.  Hurd  and  W.  H.  Carlton  to,  explore 
the  Snoqualmie  and  Cowlitz  Passes  of  the  Cascade  Range. 
The  surveys  made  by  these  parties,  and  a  third  one 
subsequently  organized  under  the  charge  of  A.  J.  Tread- 
way,  disclosed  several  practicable  passes  in  that  range,  the 
most  eligible  of  which  Gen.  Tilton  reported  to  be  the 
Cowlitz,  the  Snoqualmie,  and  the  Wenachee  or  the  Ska- 
git, situated  in  the  order  named,  the  Cowlitz  being  the 


152 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


most  southerly.  "  This  latter  pass,"  said  Gen.  Tilton 
in  his  report,  "  leads  from  the  Tanum  branch  of  the 
Nachess  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Yakima,  to  the 
Cowlitz  River,  and  is  about  twelve  miles  to  the  south- 
east of  Mount  Ranier.  The  second  pass  leads  from 
the  Kitchelus  branch  of  the  Yakima  to  the  Snoqual- 
mie  branch  of  the  Snohomish  River,  and  is  about  40 
miles  north  of  Mount  Ranier,  and  the  third  pass  leads 
from  the  Wenachee,  a  tributary  of  the  Columbia  River, 
in  one  direction  to  the  Skykomish  branch  of  the  Snoho- 
mish River,  and  in  another  and  northerly  direction  to  the 
Sawk  branch  of  the  Skagit  River  Between  the  Snoqual- 
mie  Pass  and  Mount  Ranier  are  two  Passes,  the  Cedar 
River  or  Yakima,  and  the  Nachess,  elevated,  the  former 
1,060  feet,  and  the  latter  1,900  feet  above  the  Snoqualmie 
Pass."  Through  this  latter  pass  was  built  the  military 
road  from  Puget  Sound  to  the  Columbia  River. 

No  action  was  taken  upon  these  surveys  at  the  time. 
The  money  to  pay  for  them  was  raised,  not  without  diffi- 
culty, by  a  committee  of  the  Board  of  Directors  com- 
posed of  President  Smith,  A.  H.  Barney,  A.  S.  Diven,  and 
Thomas  H.  Canfield.  The  company  was  then  endeavor- 
ing to  secure  a  grant  of  money  or  credit  from  Congress, 
and  had  no  resources  to  commence  the  construction  of 
the  road.  It  was  not  until  April,  1869,  that  the  reports 
of  General  Spaulding  and  General  Tilton  were  placed 
before  the  Board  by  the  Chief  E^ngineer.  That  officer, 
making  a  report  accompanying  those  of  the  actual  sur- 


veys. 


said 


"In  commencing  the  construction  of  the  road,  there  tire  particular  por- 
tions which,  in  view  of  tlie  benefit  and  convenience  to  the  company  and  the 
public,  should  be  first  built.  In  Washington  Territory,  the  line  from  llie 
Columbia  River  to  Puget  Sound  should  be  first  constructed,  to  accommodate 
the  business  of  that  section  and  facilitate  access  to  and  the  speedy  sale  ami 
settlement  of  the  company's  lands  on  each  side  of  the  sound,  the  demand 
for  which  will  be  greatly  increased  on  the  completion  of  the  Union  and 


SURVEYING    THE  LINE. 


153 


Central  Pacific  Railroad.  In  Montana,  an  early  connection  of  the  navi- 
gable waters  of  the  Missouri  with  those  of  the  Columbia  is  required,  to  meet 
the  wants  of  a  large  population  already  gathered  and  increasing  in  the 
mountain  portion  of  that  Territory,  and  to  develop  its  great  mineral  and 
agricultural  resources. 

"The  building  of  the  road  through  Minnesota,  to  meet  the  business 
wants  of  that  State,  and  of  a  large  and  increasing  population  to  the  north 
and  west  of  it,  should  not  be  delayed,  and  its  extension  west  of  the  Missouri 
River,  giving,  in  connection  with  the  navigation  of  that  river,  steam  com- 
munication between  the  lakes  and  the  settled  portions  of  Montana,  is  also  of 
first  importance.  This  line  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Missouri  River 
should  take  precedence  of  the  line  in  Montana,  being  needed  for  the  trans- 
port of  materials  and  men  for  the  work  in  Montana,  and  needed  also  for  the 
more  rapid  sale  and  settlement  of  the  company's  lands  in  Minnesota,  Dakota, 
and  Montana. 


The  surveys  of  Governor  Stevens  had  established  the 
fact  that  there  were  several  practicable  passes  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains  through  which  a  railroad  could  be  built 
with  ordinary  mountain  grades,  by  the  help  of  summit 
tunnels  of  moderate  length.  The  selection  of  one  of 
these  passes  was  left  to  await  more  careful  examination 
in  the  follo^ving  years,  and  the  more  definite  location  of 
the  road  on  either  side  of  the  great  water-shed. 

The  banking  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  was  proffered 
the  financial  agency  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad, 
in  1869.  But  they  delayed  a  definite  decision  upon  the 
offer  until  an  examination  of  the  route  of  the  road  and 
the  character  of  the  country  traversed  could  be  made  by 
agents  sent  out  by  themselves,  in  whose  reports  they 
could  place  confidence.  In  pursuance  of  this  arrange- 
ment, the  firm  sent  two  parties  into  the  field  in  the  sum- 
mer of  that  year.  One,  in  charge  of  W.  Milnor  Roberts, 
afterwards  Chief  Engineer  of  the  company,  was  directed 
to  proceed  to  the  Pacific  coast,  examine  Puget  Sound 
and  the  Columbia  River — the  two  western  termini  of 
the  road — and  then  go  eastward,  either  over  the  Cas- 
cade  Mountains   through  the   Snoqualmie  Pass,  or  up 


w 


154 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


the  Columbia  to  the  great  plain  of  the  Columbia,  and 
to  the  passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Upper 
Missouri  country  and  the  waters  of  the  Yellow- 
stone. The  other  party,  under  Governor  Marshall,  of 
Minnesota,  undertook  to  explore  the  already  well-known 
route  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Red  River  of  the  North, 
and  across  the  wild  Dakota  plains  to  the  Great  Bend  of 
the  Missouri.  Both  parties  were  to  report  on  the  value 
of  the  country  for  settlement,  and  the  Pacific  coast  party 
were  to  study  engineering  problems  so  far  as  to  be  able  to 
make  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  construction  on  the 
mountain  divisions  of  the  line,  which  alone  offered  any 
serious  obstacles  to  railway  building.  The  surveys  of  Gen- 
eral Tilton,  in  1867,  had,  as  we  have  seen,  included  the 
Cowlitz  River  route  from  the  Columbia  to  the  Sound,  the 
shores  of  the  Sound,  and  the  passes  of  the  Cascade  Range, 
but  had  not  been  pushed  farther  eastward  than  that  range. 
The  Pacific  coast  party  was  made  up  of  VV.  Milnor 
Roberts,  Thos.  H.  Canfield,  General  Agent  of  the  Com- 
pany;  Samuel  Wilkeson,  the  Company's  Secretary;  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Claxton,  Wm.  G.  Moorehead,  Jr.,  and  Mr. 
Johnson,  a  son  of  Edwin  F.  Johnson,  the  Chief  Engineer. 
These  gentlemen  visited  all  the  little  towns  and  saw-mill 
ports  on  Puget  Sound,  and  then  returning  to  Portland 
went  up  the  Columbia  to  Wallula,  and  thence  by  road  to 
Walla  Walla,  already  a  thriving  place.  There  they  fitted 
out  a  horseback  expedition,  consis.ting  of  eight  pack  mules 
and  ten  saddle-horses,  and  traveling  about  twenty-four 
miles  a  day,  crossed  the  rolling,  grassy  plains,  then  quite 
destitute  of  population,  but  now  dotted  with  farms  and 
villages,  to  Pend  d'Oreille  Lake.  A  small  steamer  was 
already  running  on  the  lake,  carrying  miners  and  pros- 
pectors on  their  way  to  the  Kootenai  country.  The 
party  traveled  the  old  Hudson  Bay  Company  trail  from 
the   head   of  the  lake  up  the  Clarke's   Fork,  the  route 


SURVEYING    THE  LINE. 


155 


afterward  se'ected  for  the  railroad.  They  followed  the 
Flathead  and  Jocko  rivers,  and  crossed  by  the  Coriacan 
Defile  to  the  Hell  Gate  River,  finding  at  Missoula  a  small 
and  hopeful  town,  and  at  Deer  Lodge  an  active  trading 
center.  The  Deer  Lodge,  Mullan  and  Cadotte's  Passes,  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  were  examined,  Helena  visited,  and 
the  Missouri  Valley  descended  to  Fort  Benton.  Return- 
ing to  Helena,  the  party  went  south  to  Bozeman,  and 
crossed  the  Bozeman  Pass  to  the  Yellowstone  River.  It 
had  been  their  intention  to  go  clown  the  Yellowstone  Val- 
ley, but  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  Indians  in  that  region 
caused  them  to  turn  back  to  Bozeman.  They  then  trav- 
eled southward  over  the  stage  road  to  Corinnc,  in  Utah, 
on  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  Their  failure  to  penetrate 
the  valley  of  the  Yellowstone  was  not  detrimental  to  the 
general  objects  of  the  reconnoissance,  inasmuch  as  Gen- 
eral Hancock,  with  a  military  expedition,  had  explored 
that  portion  of  the  river  in  the  previous  year.  His  report 
appeared  soon  after,  and  gave  all  the  needed  information 
as  to  the  character  of  the  country  and  its  adaptability  for 
railroad  operations. 

The  results  of  the  Roberts-Canfield-Wilkeson  explora- 
tion were  embodied  in  three  publications — a  report  by 
Mr.  Roberts,  giving  special  attention  to  engineering  feat- 
ures ;  a  pamphlet  by  Mr.  Wilkeson,  entitled  "  Wilkeson's 
Notes,"  devoted  chiefly  to  a  thorough  description  of  the 
lumber  and  coal  resources  of  the  Puget  Sound  country 
and  the  fisheries;  and  a  report  by  Mr.  Canfield,  giving  a 
full  account  of  the  Sound  harbors,  and  their  respective 
merits  for  a  terminal  city  for  the  railroad,  and  also  descrip- 
tions of  the  pasie?  of  the  Bitter  Root  and  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Mr.  Roberts  made  a  detailed  estimate  of  the  cost 
of  building  and  equipping  the  entire  line  from  Lake 
Superior  to  Puget  Sound,  the  total  being  $85,277,000,  or 
an  average  of  $42,638  per  mile. 


'fm 


156 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD, 


Gov.  Marshall's  party  included  J.  Gregory  Smith,  the 
President,  and  R.  D.  Rice,  the  Vice-President  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Company ;  Frederick  Woodbridge  and 
Worthington  C.  Smith,  members  of  Congress  from  Ver- 
mont ;  C.  C.  Coffin,  tlie  journalist  and  author,  who  wrote 
a  book  about  the  journey;  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lord,  and  Dr. 
Thayer,  of  Vermont;  George  Brackett,  of  Minneapolis; 
Mr.  Holmes  representing  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  and  Mr.  Bay- 
less,  who  represented  certain  New  York  capitalists. 
After  leaving  St.  Cloud  the  expedition  followed  the  Red 
River  trail.  They  found  four  houses  at  Glenwood,  on 
White  Bear  Lake,  a  block  house  at  Pomme  de  Terre,  and 
one  house  at  McCarleyville.  These  were  the  only  habi- 
tations they  saw  until  they  reached  Georgetown,  on  the 
Red  River,  where  there  were  two  houses,  built  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company.  At  the  crossing  of  the  Cheyenne 
River,  President  Smith,  with  a  portion  of  the  party, 
turned  back,  leaving  Gov.  Marshall  with  the  remainder, 
to  proceed  to  the  Missouri  by  way  of  Devil's  Lake.  A 
military  escort  protected  the  party  from  attacks  by 
roaming  Indians.  Arriving  at  Fort  Stevenson,  the  expe- 
dition found  it  prudent  to  return  at  once,  to  avoid  a  large 
body  of  savages  reported  by  scouts  to  be  iidvancing 
toward  the  trail.  It  reached  the  settlements  of  Minne- 
sota in  safety. 

The  reports  of  these  several  expeditions  convinced  the 
Philadelphia  banking  firm  that  the  land  grant  of  the 
Northerr  Pacific  Railroad  was  of  great  value,  and  there- 
fore afforded  a  legitimate  basis  for  credit.  The  country 
the  line  would  traverse  west  of  the  pine  forests  of  North- 
ern Minnesota  was  inviting  to  settlement.  On  the  Pacific 
slope  a  fertile  region  was  found  between  the  Cascade 
range  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  high  valleys  of 
Montana  were  shown  to  be  exceedingly  productive  with 
the   use   of    irrigation,   while   the   mines    had    already 


SURVEYING    THE  LINE. 


157 


caused  prosperous  towns  of  considerable  size  to  spring 
up. 

The  topograph}''  of  the  country  and  the  trails  followed 
by  the  Indians  and  by  miners  and  traders  suggested  three 
routes  westward  from  the  main  range  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains:  one  by  the  Salmon  River  to  its  junc- 
tion with  the  Snake,  and  thence  down  the  latter 
stream  to  the  Columbia ;  one  across  the  Bitter  Root 
Range  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Clearwater  River, 
and  down  the  Clearwater  to  the  Snake  and  Columbia, 
the  route  taken  by  the  Lewis  and  Clarke  expedition  ; 
and  a  third  following  the  Valley  of  the  Deer  Lodge, 
Hell  Gate,  Missoula,  and  Clarke's  Fork  Rivers — all  in 
reality  one  stream  under  different  names — to  Lake  Pend 
d'Oreille,  and  thence  across  the  Columbia  Plains  to  the 
junction  of  the  Snake  and  Columbia.  All  three  were 
thoroughly  surveyed  by  the  engineer  corps  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Company  in  the  years  1870,  1871,  and  1872. 
These  surveys  resulted  in  showing  that  there  was  no  pass 
in  the  Bitter  Root  Range,  south  of  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille, 
less  than  5,000  feet  above  the  sea;  the  passes  ranging 
generally  from  5,400  to  nearly  8,000  feet  in  height.  The 
r^  untain  route,  via  Salmon  River,  proved  to  be  some 
miles  longer  than  the  valley  route,  via  Lake  Pend 
d'Oreille,  besides  being  much  mor*^  difficult  to  construct. 
The  mountain  route,  via  the  Clearwater  River,  was  five 
miles  shorter  than  the  valley  route,  but  was  greatly  in- 
ferior in  all  other  respects,  having  a  summit  more  than 
3,000  feet  above  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  and  much  more 
curvature,  and  being  more  difficult  and  more  costly  to 
construct.  It  was  ascertained  that  not  only  the  routes 
via  the  Salmon  River  and  the  Clearwater  River,  but  any 
route  crossing  the  Bitter  Root  Range,  must  encounter 
serious  trouble  from  snow,  which  would  be  avoided  on 
the  valley  route. 


i 


158 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


t 


It  seemed  so  desirable  to  the  Board  of  Directors  to 
build  down  the  Clearwater  and  Snake  Rivers,  because  of 
the  fertile  character  of  the  rolling  table  lands  drained  by 
those  streams,  that  a  final  effort  was  made  to  discover  a 
practicable  pass.  After  it  was  determined  to  begin  con- 
struction eastward  from  the  Columbia  River  the  definite 
choice  of  a  route  was  left  open  till  the  results  of  a  new 
survey  made  by  Engineer  McCartney  were  known.  Not 
till  a  telegram  was  received  from  Mr,  McCartney  announc- 
ing that  he  had  found  no  feasible  pass  across  the  Bitter 
Root  Mountains  did  orders  go  out  from  New  York  to 
General  Sprague,  the  Superintendent  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
to  begin  grading  on  the  Pend  d'Oreille  route. 

On  the  map  the  road  as  completed  seems  to  make  a 
long  detour  to  the  northward  to  go  around  by  Lake  Pend 
d'Oreille  ;  and  many  people  in  Lewiston,  disappointed 
that  it  was  not  built  through  heir  town  by  the  Clear- 
water route,  are  still  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  it  goes  a 
hundred  miles  out  of  its  way.  Nevertheless,  the  measure- 
ments of  the  engineers  showed  that  the  northern  bend 
made  the  road  only  five  miles  longer  than  a  line  would 
be  up  and  down  the  crooked,  narrow,  streams  heading  in 
the  lofty  Bitter  Root  Range. 


irectors  to 
>ecause  of 
rained  by 
liscover  a 
egin  con- 
le  definite 
of  a  new 
vvn.  Not 
announc- 
the  Bitter 
r  York  to 
fie  Coast, 

o  make  a 
ake  Pend 
ppointed 
he  Clear- 
it  goes  a 
measure- 
em  bend 
le  would 
eading  in 


,ii 


OKI  Faithful  Geyser,  National  I'aik. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


AMENDMENTS  TO   THE   CHARTER. 


Weary  Wailing  upon  Congress — Various  Schemes  for  Obtaining  Govern- 
ment Aid — Opposition  to  the  Land  Grant  and  Subsidy  System — The 
Northern  Pacific  Company  goes  to  Sleep  for  Two  Years — No  Board 
Meetings  from  i36S  to  1870 — Congress  Extends  the  Time  for  Beginning 
Work  on  the  Road,  and  for  Completing  it — A  Wise  Change  of  Policy — 
Congress  Autliorizes  the  Issue  of  Bonds — Branch  from  Portland  to  Puget 
Sound  Authorized. 

The  history  of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise  for  the 
years  1868  and  1869  is  for  the  most  part  a  narrative  of 
weary  waiting  upon  Congress  for  pecuniary  aid,  which 
was  never  given,  and  which  the  directors  had  no  good 
reason  to  expect.  Various  schemes  were  broached 
before  the  Pacific  Railroad  Committees  of  the  two 
Houses.  At  one  time  the  effort  was  to  procure  a  Gov- 
ernment guaranty  of  interest  on  an  issue  of  bonds  at 
the  rate  of  $40,000  per  mile  of  road  ;  at  another  to  obtain 
the  bonds  of  the  United  States  on  the  same  conditions 
upon  which  such  bonds  were  given  to  the  Union  and 
Central  Pacific  companies  by  the  legislation  of  1864.  Mr. 
Thos.  H.  Canfield  took  charge  of  the  interests  of  the  com- 
pany at  Washington,  and  President  Smith  and  some  of  the 
other  directors  occasionally  reinforced  him  for  a  short 
time.  Favorable  reports  were  obtained  from  committees 
and  bills  were  placed  upon  the  calendar,  but  there  they 
died.  Many  influential  men  in  both  Houses  took  the 
position  that  the  Northern  route  had  a  fair  claim  to  the 
same  assistance  from  the  Government  which  had  been 
accorded  to  the  middle  route.  It  was  argued  on  the 
other    hand  that  a  double   grant    had    been  given   the 


t: 

4 


i6o 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


t '' ; 


Northern  Pacific  in  lieu  of  a  subsidy  in  bonds.  The 
friends  of  the  road  urged  in  rej)ly  that  the  land  grant  was 
unavailable  as  a  basis  for  credit,  and  that  the  company 
would  be  glad  to  restore  half  of  it  to  the  public  domain  if 
Congress  would  put  them  on  the  same  basis  as  the  two 
companies  then  building  the  middle  line.  They  had  to 
encounter,  however,  a  determined  opposition  to  the  land 
grant  and  subsidy  system.  A  considerable  number  of 
members  would  gladly  have  voted  to  abrogate  the  North- 
ern Pacific  charter,  believing  that  such  a  course  would 
commend  them  for  re-election  to  their  constituents. 
Many  others  would  go  no  further  toward  aiding  the  com- 
pany than  to  support  a  bill  making  a  second  extension  of 
the  limit  of  time  for  beginning  construction  operations. 
From  a  habit  of  careless  and  lavish  generosity  in  making 
grants  of  the  public  domain  to  corporations  proposing  to 
build  railway  lines  in  the  West,  Congress  had  changed  to 
an  attitude  of  hostility  toward  all  propositions  for  new 
grants,  and  of  suspicious  watchfulness  of  all  companies  to 
which  lands  had  already  been  given.  With  such  a  tem- 
per prevailing  in  the  National  Legislature  it  is  strange 
that  the  Northern  Pacific  managers  should  have  wasted 
two  years  more  in  making  arguments,  appeals,  and  com- 
binations in  the  lobbies  and  committee  rooms  of  the 
Capitol,  During  those  two  years  the  Company,  as  an  or- 
ganization, went  to  sleep.  The  surveys  were  prosecuted 
in  the  summer  of  1867,  but  no  report  was  made  of  their 
results  to  the  board  until  1870,  because  there  were  no 
meetings  of  the  board  from  February,  1868,  to  February, 
1870.  A  meeting  of  stockholders  and  election  of  directors 
was  not  held  in  December,  1867,  as  required  by  the  by- 
laws, nor  in  the  two  following  years. 

The  only  favor  obtained  from  Congress  prior  to  the 
passage  of  the  amendments  to  the  charter  in  1869  and 
1870,  authorizing  the  issue  of  the  bonds  of  the  Company, 


AMENDMENTS   TO    THE   CHARTER. 


i6i 


was  an  act  passed  in  1868,  extending  the  time  for  com- 
mencing work  on  the  road  until  July  2,  1870,  and  the 
time  for  completing  it  until  July  4,  1877.  This  was 
passed  after  very  brief  consideration  and  with  very  little 
opposition.  The  bill,  as  reported  to  the  Senate,  carried  the 
limit  of  time  for  finishing  the  road  forward  to  July  4,  1883. 
Just  as  it  was  about  to  pass,  Mr.  Ramsey,  of  Minnesota, 


mo 


ved  to  strike  out  "18S3"   au'l    insert  "1878. 


II 


IS 


amendment  was  agreed  to,  and  the  bill  passed  May  30 
without  a  division.  A  month  later,  June  29,  the  House 
passed  its  own  bill  by  a  vote  of  96  to  32,  making  the 
date  July  4,  1877,  and  the  Senate  the  same  day,  as  the 
session  was  about  to  expire,  took  up  that  bill  and  passed 
it.  Had  the  date  as  originally  fixed  by  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee, 1883,  been  adopted  in  the  bill  as  finally  passed, 
the  Northern  Pacific  Company  would  have  been  saved  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  and  much  expense,  subsequently 
incurred  for  the  protection  of  its  rights  under  its  charter. 
In  1869  the  managers  of  the  Northern  Pacific  project 
finally,  and  with,  great  reluctance,  made  up  their  minds 
that  it  was  useless  to  besiege  Congress  with  applications 
for  Government  aid,  and  began  to  consider  the  feasibility 
of  building  the  road  as  an  ordinary  business  enterprise, 
with  the  proceeds  of  a  loan  placed  upon  the  money 
market.  As  a  first  step  in  his  direction,  they  procured 
the  passage  of  an  act  by  Congress  authorizing  the  Com- 
pany to  issue  its  bonds  and  to  secure  them  by  a  mort- 
gage upon  its  railroad  and  telegraph  line,  and  construing 
"  Puget  Sound "  in  the  Charter  Act  to  mean  all  the 
waters  connected  with  the  Straits  of  Juan  de  Fuca  within 
the  territory  of  the  United  States.  This  latter  clause 
was  important,  because  it  enabled  the  Company  to  make 
its  Avestern  terminus  at  any  point  between  the  British 
boundary  line  and  the  head  of  the  Sound,  instead  of  con- 
fining it  to  Puget  Sound  proper,  which  is  the  crescent- 
II 


w 


162 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


shaped  southern  end  of  the  large  body  of  water  popu- 
larly known  by  that  name.  It  was  defective  in  not 
including  the  land  grant  in  the  power  to  mortgage. 
This  defect  ".vas  perceived  as  soon  as  a  scheme  for  a  loan 
was  fairly  formulated. 

The  act  in  question  bore  date  of  March  1st,  1869. 
Another  act  was  passed  and  approved  April  loth,  1869, 
authorizing  the  continuation  of  the  Portland  branch  to 
some  suitable  point  on  Pugct  Sound,  to  be  determined 
by  the  Company,  where  it  was  to  connect  with  the  main 
line  across  the  Cascade  Mountains,  and  requiring  the 
construction  of  twenty-five  miles  of  the  extension  before 
July  2d,  1871,  and  of  forty  miles  in  each  year  thereafter 
until  it  should  be  completed. 

Both  these  acts  were  passed  with  scarcely  any  debate 
on  the  indorsement  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Committees 
of  the  Senate  and  House.  The  ultra  opponents  of  the 
Land  Grant  system  attempted  to  defeat  the  second  bill  in 
the  House,  but  could  not  muster  sufficient  votes  to 
demand  the  yeas  and  nays.  A  brief  statement  of  the 
purpose  of  the  measure  by  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Minnesota, 
carried  it  through. 


<JP' 


(Jiant  Geyser,  Nalional  Tark. 


CHAPTER    XX. 


THE   JAV   COOKE   CONTRACT. 


The  Banking  House  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. — Mi\  Cooke's  Character  as  a 
Financier — His  Contract  with  the  Nortliern  Pacific  Company — A  Hard 
I'>argain — Five  Millions  Furnished  to  Begin  Construction  in  1870 — A 
Town  Site  Company  Formed — A  New  Bill  Passes  Congress  Authorizing 
ilie  Mortgaging  of  the  Road  and  Land  Grant — The  Columbia  River 
Eine  ^^ade  the  Main  Line  to  Puget  Sound — A  P>ri:.k  Contest  in  both 
Houses — Jay  Cooke's  Plan  for  a  Foreign  Loan — The  Bonds  Finally 
Offeretl  to  the  American  Public-  Defects  of  the  Financial  Scheme. 

PreshjENT  Smith  and  the  directors  were  very  desirous 
of  sccurin*;  the  services  of  the  great  banking  house  of  Jay 
Cook'f"  &  Co.  to  sell  the  company's  bonds  and  manage  its 
finances.  This  house  had  placed  the  immense  war  loans 
of  the  Government,  and  by  its  success  in  that  line  was 
widely  known  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  No  other 
banking  institution  in  America  could  rival  it  at  the  time 
in  the  sort  of  popularity  which  comes  from  dashing  enter- 
prise and  rapidly  earjied  success.  The  head  of  the  house, 
Mr.  Jay  Cooke,  was  an  Ohio  man,  of  a  family  of  editors 
and  bankers,  who  secured  the  important  and  profitable 
trust  of  selling  the  bonds  of  the  Government  through  the 
friendship  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  Tlic  chief  establishment  o(  the  firm  was  in 
Philadelphia,  but  it  had  branches  in  New  York  and  Lon- 
don,  and  a  bank  in  Washington  called  the  First  National, 
of  which  Mr.  Cooke's  brother,  Henry  D.  Cooke  was  presi- 
dent. Jay  Cooke  had  a  talent  for  what  the  French  call 
grand  finance.  His  operations  were  on  n.  iarge  scale. 
Always  bold  and  enthusiastic,  and  gifted  wi^-li  the  faculty 
of  ii. spiring  others  with  his  confidence  anu  erthusiasm,  his 


164 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


success  in  speculative  times,  when  values  were  appreciating 
from  abundant  money,  was  almost  a  natural  result  of  his 
mental  organizalion.  His  great  defect  was  a  want  of 
caution  and  foresight.  He  failed  to  unflerstand  that  alter- 
nate expansion  and  contraction  is  the  law  of  finance,  and 
that  the  business  of  the  world  progresses  like  the  frog  in 
the  well  in  the  old  arithmetic  problem,  Avhich  leaped  up 
three  feet  and  then  fell  back  two.  Mr.  Cooke's  schemes 
were  based  on  the  delusive  idea  that  the  pendulum  of 
trade  and  finance  always  swings  upward.  He  did  not 
make  provision  for  the  inevitable  downward  movement. 

He  had  developed  a  system  of  "  popularizing  "  the  Gov- 
ernment loans  by  means  of  profuse  advertising  in  the 
newspapers,  supplemented  by  editorial  articles  an.',  by  a 
lavish  distribution  of  pamphlets  and  circulars  No  ;;-c,ii 
in  his  day  could  equal  him  in  the  effective  usv  of  pruitcr's 
ink.  This  system,  with  its  appliances  and  local  agencies, 
the  Northern  Pacific  managers  wanted  to  seci;rc.  They 
were  sagacious  in  this  effort,  for  it  was  unquestionably 
by  far  the  best  machinery  in  existence  at  the  time  for 
placing  a  loan. 

Mr.  Cooke  was  in  no  hurry  about  closing  the  bargain. 
He  held  the  project  under  advisement  for  over  a  year. 
Meanwhile  he  sent  out  exploring  parties,  as  we  have  seen 
in  another  chapter,  to  examine  the  vast  uninhabited  regions 
to  be  traversed  by  the  road.  He  insisted  that  the  mort- 
gage .should  be  made  applicable  to  the  lands  granted  to 
the  company,  as  well  as  to  its  railroad  line.  With  th 
understanding  that  legislation  for  this  purpose  should  bi 
procured,  he  made  a  contract  with  the  company  on  ?.Kty 
20th,  1869,  which  was  modified  by  a  supplementar\  con- 
tract  on  January  ist,  1870.  Let  us  see  what  the  main 
terms  of  these  contracts  were.  They  provided  for  an 
issue  of  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $100,000,000,  bearing 
interest  at  the  rate  of  seven  and  three-tenths  per  cent,  in 


THE  JAY  COOKE   CONTRACT. 


165 


gold 


rgain. 
year, 
seen 
gions 
mort- 
tcd  to 
th  tb- 
ild  be 

con- 
main 
or  an 
:aring 
:nt.  In 


This  rate  was  adopted  by  the  government  for  its 
last  war  loan,  when  its  credit  was  at  the  lowest  ebb,  for 
the  reason  that  it  made  the  interest  on  a  $50  bond,  the 
smallest  denomination  issued,  exactly  one  cent  per  day. 
Mr.  Cooke  had  sold  the  7-30  Government  loan  success- 
fully, and  insisted  that  the  Northern  Pacific  loan  should 
resemble  it  in  all  possible  respects. 

The  banking  firm  credited  the  railroad  with  eighty- 
eight  cents  on  the  dollar  for  the  bonds  it  sold,  and  as 
it  disposed  of  them  at  par,  its  margin  was  a  very  liberal 
one.  But  the  contract  gave  it  $200  of  the  stock  of  the 
company  for  every  $1,000  of  bonds  sold,  which  would 
have  amounted  for  the  completed  road  to  about  $20,000,- 
000,  and  one-half  of  the  remainder  of  the  $100,000,000  of 
stock  authorized  by  the  charter.  The  twelve  original 
proprietary  interests  which  owned  the  stock  were  in- 
creased to  twenty-four,  and  twelve  of  them  assigned  to 
Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  A  considerable  amount  of  the  stock  was 
given  by  the  banking  house  to  subscribers  to  the  bonds,  but 
in  all  cases  an  irrevocable  power  of  attorney  was  taken, 
so  that  the  firm,  having  purchased  a  thirteenth  interest, 
controlled  the  management  of  the  company's  affairs. 
Other  specifications,  in  the  contract  made  the  firm  the 
sole  financial  agents  of  the  road,  and  the  sol'"  depositary 
of  its  funds;  provided  for  the  conversion  of  tj.e  $600,000 
of  old  stock  outstanding  into  bonds  at  fifty  cents  on  the 
dollar,  created  a  land  company  to  manage  the  town  sites, 
and  bound  the  firm  to  raise  $^, 000,000  within  thirty  days 
fi-oni  January  2,  1870,  with  which  the  company  was  im- 
mediately to  commence  building  the  road.  It  was  also 
specified  that  the  road  should  be  at  once  located  from  the 
Montreal  River  in  Wisconsin  westward  to  the  Red  River, 
but  construction  was  to  begin  at  the  intersection  of  the 
Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad,  a  line  already 
built  from  St.  Paul  to  Duluth,  the  junction  being  near 


1'' 

■■■■Vl- 

i66 


XORTIIERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


the  Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis  River  and  about  twenty  miles 
west  of  Duluth.  As  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  owned  a  controlling 
interest  in  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Company, 
there  was  a  practical  unity  of  interest  with  the  Northern 
Pacific,  and  the  latter  company  had  the  advantage  of 
the  use  of  the  twenty  miles  of  completed  road,  with  the 
lake  terminus  at  Duluth. 

Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  raised  the  five  millions  required  to  be 
ready  within  thirty  days,  by  forming  a  "  pool "  in  Phila- 
delphia, the  members  of  which  took  the  bonds  at  par 
and  were  given  the  twelve  proprietary  interests  in  the 
stock  at  $50,000  each.  The  profit  of  the  firm  in  this  great 
action  was  $600,000  on  the  bonds  for  which  it 
p>  ■  88,  and  $600,000  on  the  stock  for  which  it  paid 
notning;  total,  $1,200,000.  The  five  millions  of  bonds 
carried  with  them  a  total  of  $41,000,000  of  stock  to  be 
issued  ratably  as  fast  as  sections  of  25  miles  of  the  road 
were  completed.  Each  of  the  twelve  proprietary  shares 
was  entitled  to  $93,400  nominal  of  the  preliminary  issue 
of  stock,  and  in  addition  to  $83,334  nominal  in  stock  for 
the  20  per  cent,  stock,  commission  on  the  sale  of  bonds, 
provided  for  in  the  contract  between  the  bankers  and  tlie 
company.  By  the  time  the  road  reached  the  Red  River, 
the  stock  issued  to  each  of  these  shares  amounted  to 
$541,234.  One-half  interest  in  a  company  formed  to 
speculate  in  town  sites  on  the  Northern  Pacific  line  also 
went  with  these  twelve  shares. 

A  nev/  joint  resolution  was  introduced  in  Congress 
in  the  winter  of  1870,  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Cooke,  and 
passed  in  the  face  of  a  strong  opposition.  It  authorized 
the  issue  of  bonds  secured  by  mortgage  on  all  the  prop- 
erty and  rights  of  the  company,  which  of  course  in- 
cluded its  land  grant,  and  the  filing  of  the  mortgage  in 
the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  It  made  the 
Columbia  River  line  the  main  line  to  Puget  Sound,  and 


THE  JAY  CtOKE   CONTRACT. 


167 


the  Cascade  line  the  branch,  and  it  gave  the  company 
the  right  to  select  lands  within  a  limit  often  miles  on  each 
side  of  its  grant,  to  make  up  any  deficiency  in  the  lands 
within  the  original  grant  by  sale  or  from  occupation  by 
settlers.  This  latter  provision  practically  enlarged  the 
area  of  the  grant  to  thirty  miles  in  the  States  and  fifty 
miles  in  the  territories  on  each  side  of  the  line. 

This  measure,  which  opened  the  way  for  procuring 
money  to  begin  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Road,  originated  in  the  Senate  Committee  on  the  Pacific 
Railroads,  of  which  Mr.  Howard,  of  Michigan,  was  chair- 
man. It  wa;,  brought  up  for  consideration  on  February 
28th,  and  occupied  a  good  deal  of  time  in  the  debates 
until  April  21st.  Its  opponents  might  have  been  divided 
into  two  classes — those  who  conscientiously  or  for  politi- 
cal effect  were  opposed  to  railway  land-grants  and  would 
gladly  have  seen  the  Northern  Pacific  grant  lapse  by 
reason  of  the  failure  of  the  company  to  raise  money  to 
build  the  line,  and  those  whose  interests  in  the  Union 
and  Central  Pacific  Companies  led  them  to  oppose  the 
building  of  a  rival  road  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  Its  chief 
supporters,  beside  Mr.  Howard,  were  the  Minnesota  and 
Oregon  Senators.  The  actual  contest  was,  in  the  end, 
not  so  much  over  the  merits  of  the  measure  itself,  as  over 
amendments  which  Mr.  Thurman,  Mr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Sher- 
man, and  others  sought  to  attach  to  it.  One  of  these 
amendments  required  the  company  to  sell  its  lands  only  to 
actual  settlers,  and  at  a  price  not  to  exceed  $2.50  an  acre ; 
another  fixed  the  price  at  $1.25  per  acre  ;  a  third  required 
all  the  land  of  the  grant  not  sold  within  three  years  to  be 
subject  to  settlement  and  pre-emption  at  $1.25  an  acre; 
a  fourth  provided  that  the  railroad  should  carry  troops, 
mails,  and  government  freight  free  of  charge.  All  these 
were  voted  down,  as  was  an  amendment  striking  c)ut  the 
provision   that   the   railroad    company   might   select    in- 


1 68 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


demnity  lands  within  ten  miles  of  the  limits  of  the  grant. 
Finally  on  April  2ist,  the  joint  resolution  was  passed  by 
a  vote  of  40  yeas,  to  1 1  nays. 

Mr.  Wheeler,  of  New  York,  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Pacific  Railroads,  brought  in  the  joint  resolution  on 
May  5th.  A  whole  day  was  consumed  in  filibustering 
by  the  opponents  of  the  measure,  who  were  fighting  for 
a  chance  to  have  their  amendments  considered.  The 
next  clay  the  House  refused  by  a  vote  of  77  to  91  to  order 
the  joint  resolution  to  a  third  reading,  which  had  the 
parliamentary  effect  of  rejecting  it  finally,  but  Mr.  Wheeler 
had  voted  in  the  affirmative  in  order  to  have  the  right  to 
move  to  reconsider,  which  he  did,  and  then  moved  to  refer 
the  joint  resolution  with  all  the  amendments  which  might 
be  offered  back  to  his  committee.  No  fewer  than  twenty- 
four  amendments  were  sent  up  to  the  clerk's  desk. 

Two  weeks  later  Mr.  Wheeler  reported  the  joint  reso- 
lution again  to  the  House  just  as  it  came  from  the  Senate, 
and  said  that  his  committee  desired  that  every  gentleman 
who  had  offered  an  amendment  should  have  an  opportu- 
nity to  submit  it  to  vote.  The  mover  of  each  amendment 
made  a  short  speech  in  its  behalf.  Speeches  and  roll- 
calls  occupied  two  days'  time.  One  after  another  all  the 
amendments  were  rejected,  and  the  joint  resolution  was 
finally  passed  by  yeas  106,  nays  81.  It  is  not  worth  while 
to  give  here  the  numerous  amendments.  Many  dupli- 
cated each  other  in  essential  features,  all  were  in  the  line 
of  restrictions  upon  the  right  of  the  company  to  manage 
its  road  or  dispose  of  its  land  giant  in  its  own  way,  save  a 
few  relating  to  the  right  of  other  roads  to  cross  the  grant, 
which  were  unobjectionable,  and  were  rejected  only  be- 
cause their  adoption  would  send  the  measure  back  to  the 
Senate,  where  it  might  be  lost  for  lack  of  the  time,  as  the 
session  was  near  its  close. 

Mr.  Cooke's  first  idea  was  not  to  place  the  bonds  by 


THE  JAY  COOKE   CONTRACT. 


169 


popular  subscription  in  America,  but  to  sell  all  or  a  great 
part  of  the  loan  in  Europe.     In  1869  his  partner,  Wm.  G. 
Morcheacl,  went  across  the  Atlantic  with  a  prospectus  in 
his  pocket  to  be  submitted  to  the  Rothschilds,     In  it  Mr. 
Cooke  had  set  out  the  conditions  of  the  loan  and  the  p'  as- 
pects of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise  in  such  an  attract- 
ive shape  as  to  make  it  appear  that  there  would  be  eighty 
millions  of  dollars  of  profit  to  be  divided  between  the 
Rothschilds  and  his  house  if  the  former  would  furnish  the 
money  to  build  the  road.     Morehead  lacked  faith  in  the 
Northern  Pacific  project  from  the  first,  and  made  so  cold 
a  presentation  of  the  proposal  that  the  Rothschilds  de- 
clined it  without  much  consideration.      Morehead  thc-i 
telegraphed  to  Cooke,  advising  him  to  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the   business,  and  went  off  to    Egypt  to  spend 
the  winter  on  the  Nile.      The  next  spring  Mr.    Cooke 
met  at  a  dinner  party  at  the  house  of  Baron  Gerolt,  the 
Prussian    Minister   at  Washington,  two   young    bankers 
connected  with  good  houses,  one  in  Amsterdam  and  one  in 
Berlin.     He  so  far  interested  them  in  the  Northern  Pacific 
plan  that  they,  after  a  visit  to  his  home  at  Ogontz,  diew 
on  their  banks  for  half  a  million  dollars,  deposited  the 
drafts  with  Mr.  Cooke,  and  hastened  home  to  organize  a 
combination  of  forces  to  take  fifty  millions  of  the  loan. 
Arrangements  involving  leading  banking  firms  in  London 
and  continental  cities  were  on  the  point  of  being  com- 
pleted when  the  French  Emperor,  Napoleon  III.,  started 
for  the  Rhine,  and  began  his  disastrous  attack  upon  Ger- 
many.    The  whole  transaction  came  sharply  to  an  end, 
and   Mr.   Cooke  was  compelled  to  fall    back   upon   the 
American  market.     Then  his  apparatus  of  advertising  and 
local  agencies  was  brought  into  efficient  operation. 

Mr.  Cooke  drove  a  hard  bargain  with  the  railroad  com- 
pany. He  made  his  own  terms,  and  made  them  so  exact- 
ing, as  he  afterwards  said,  that  he  did  not  suppose  they 


M 


it 
t  ■■ 


170 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


IT' 

i 


would  be  accepted.  It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  the  Northern  Pacific  managers  sought  him,  not  he 
them.  They  regarded  him  and  his  bank  with  its  great 
reputation  and  influence  as  a  good  acquisition  at  any  cost. 
They  conceded  to  him,  first,  an  unusually  high  rate  of 
interest  payable  in  gold  to  make  the  bonds  attractive  to 
the  public  ;  second,  a  discount  of  twelve  cents  on  the  dol- 
lar of  the  face  value  of  the  bonds  ;  third,  an  ample  pro- 
vision in  the  way  of  stock  to  pay  expenses  of  advertising 
and  selling  the  loan  ;  fourth,  a  half  interest  in  the  remain- 
ing stock.  In  return  the  banking  firm  gave  only  their 
promise  to  raise  the  money  to  build  the  road.  The  finan- 
cial scheme  was  faulty  in  other  respects  than  the  great 
allowances  of  stock  and  commissions.  It  pushed  the 
company  along  on  the  highway  to  certain  insolvency. 
No  extraordinary  foresight  was  needed  to  see  that  a 
railroad  could  not  be  built  through  two  thousand  miles 
of  absolute  wilderness,  and  settle  and  develop  the  vacant 
country  along  its  line  fast  enough  to  provide  from  its 
net  earnings  for  $7.30  interest  per  annum  on  Sioo  for 
every  $88  expended  upon  it.  As  soon  as  the  sale  of 
bonds  ceased,  and  the  interest  on  the  debt  could  not  be 
provided  for  by  increasing  the  principal,  bankruptcy  was 
inevitable.  The  years  1869,  1870  and  1871  were  not,  how- 
ever, times  when  prudence  was  a  common  commodity. 
Men's  heads  were  turned  by  the  apparent  prosperity  of 
the  United  States.  It  was  thought  that  any  draft  on  tl  e 
future  could  be  met,  that  the  business  of  the  country 
could  go  on  swimmingly  with  all  sails  set,  for  an  indefinite 
period.     Yet  the  breakers  were  close  at  hand. 


wevcr, 
not  he 
1  great 
y  cost, 
ate  of 
:ivc  to 
lie  dol- 
c  pro- 
rtising 
smain- 
y  their 
:  fi nan- 
great 
:d  the 
vency. 
:hat  a 
miles 
vacant 
Din  its 
00  for 
;alc  of 
not  be 
cy  was 
t,  how- 
lodity. 
rit)  of 
on  tl  e 
Duntrv 
definite 


Great  Falls  of  ihe  Yellowstone,  National  Taik. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


SALE   OF  THE   7-30  BONDS. 

Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  Kflforts  to  ropulaiize  the  7-30  Loan — Extensive  and  Lib- 
eral Advertising — Favoralde  Opinions  from  I'rominent  rublic  Men — 
Favorable  Conilitions  fur  Selling  the  IJonds — Cooke's  IJraneh  House  in 
London — The  Ijonds  Largely  IJouglil  by  People  of  Moderate  Means — 
Truthfulness  of  Jay  Cooke's  I'ublished  Statements  About  the  Northern 
I'acilic  IJelt  — Extracts  from  his  Pamphlets. 

Wnil  his  own  terms  accepted  by  the  company,  with 
the  legislation  he  desired  concerning  the  mortgage  and 
land  grant  adopted  by  Congress,  and  with  his  own  bank- 
ing firm  accorded  the  selection  of  two  directors  in  the 
Nortliern  Pacific  Board,  and  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
stock  of  the  company,  Jay  Cooke  began  his  efforts  to 
"  popularize  "  the  7-30  loan  in  the  summer  of  1870.  He 
employed  the  same  methods  he  had  before  successfully 
used  in  the  sale  of  the  Government  loans.  Advertise- 
ments were  published  in  the  newspapers  far  and  wide, 
including  the  country  weeklies  as  well  as  the  city  dailies. 
Liberal  payments  for  advertising  secured  favorable  edito- 
rial comments  on  the  loan  and  on  the  railroad  enterprise 
generally.  For  many  months  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
take  up  a  newspaper  in  any  part  of  the  Northern  States 
without  finding  something  in  it  concerning  the  Northern 
Pacific.  Prominent  statesmen  and  army  officers  wrote 
letters  describing  the  merits  of  the  country  the  road  was 
to  traverse.  Generals,  members  of  Congress,  Governors 
of  States,  and  the  Vice-President  of  the  T",<i  cd  States 
gave  the  weight  of  their  indorsement  to  the  project. 
Their  opinions,  together  with  extracts  from  the  reports 
of  engineers  and  others  sent  out  to  survey  the  line  and 


-.    I 


172 


NOKTI/ERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


reconnoitcr  the  country  were  printed  in  pamphlets  and 
spread  broadcast.  An  effective  circuhir  was  compiled 
from  the  arguments  of  the  men  in  Congress  who  had  op- 
posed the  grant  to  the  company  because  of  its  great  ex- 
tent and  of  its  fertility  and  value  for  settlement.  In  these 
and  many  other  ways  popular  confidence  in  the  loan  was 
created  and   maintained.      The  bonds  put  on  the 

market  at  a  favorable  time.  The  Goveri.  .^iit  had  ceased 
to  be  a  borrower  and  had  begun  to  diminish  the  princi- 
pal of  its  debt,  while  bringing  down  the  rate  of  its  inter- 
est to  five  per  cent.  The  profits  of  business  were  large. 
Money  was  abundant,  and  new  investments  which  prom- 
ised large  returns  were  sought  with  more  eagerness  than 
judgment.  Unprofitable  railways  were  built,  unprofit- 
able mines  opened,  and  unprofitable  factories  established 
in  the  reckless  expansion  of  business  enterprise  which 
characterized  the  times. 

Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  had  established  a  branch  banking  house 
in  London  under  the  firm  name  of  Jay  Co^ke.  McCulloch 
&  Co.,  the  resident  partner  being  Hugh  '"-ulloch,  who 
had  just  resigned  the  Secretaryship  of  t'  ..ited  States 
Treasury.  Agencies  for  the  sale  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
bonds  were  opened  in  all  the  chief  money  centers  of  the 
continent  of  Europe,  and  pamphlets  in  German  and 
French  were  freely  distributed.  The  chief  sale  of  the 
bonds,  however,  was  in  the  United  States.  They  became 
for  a  time  a  favorite  investment  with  all  classes  of  people. 
The  small  savings  of  thousands  of  mechanics,  farmers, 
and  tradesmen,  as  well  as  the  large  hoards  of  capitalists 
sought  investment  in  these  securities.  Money  for  sub- 
scriptions came  in  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Over 
eight  thousand  names  were  put  upon  the  books  of 
the  company.  There  was  hardly  a  State  that  was  not 
represented  by  numerous  subscribers.  In  after  years, 
when  the  land  grant  of  the  company  was  assailed  by  hos- 


SALE   OF   THE  7-30  BONDS. 


173 


not 

cars, 

hos- 


tile influences  in  Congress,  this  wide  diffusion  of  the  bonds 
proved  a  great  clement  of  strength.  The  bondholders, 
who  became  stockholders  after  the  reorganization  of  the 
company  in  1874,  brought  their  influence  to  bear  upon 
their  representatives  in  Congress  to  protect  the  com- 
pany's rights  and  interests.  Scores  of  Congressmen  were 
surprised  to  learn  by  letter  after  letter  from  constituents 
that  the  Northern  Pacific  had  influential  friends  in  their 
own  districts. 

After  the  great  financial  panic  of  1873  had  precipitated 
the  house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  into  bankruptcy,  the  firm 
was  accused  in  the  public  press  of  misrepresenting  the 
character  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  project,  and 
of  grossly  overrating  the  value  of  the  land  grant  upon 
which  it  was  chiefly  based.  The  maps  showing  the 
isothermal  lines  bending  to  the  North  beyond  the  Miss- 
issippi, so  as  to  give  to  the  Yellowstone  country  the 
climate  of  Northern  Ohio,  .iid  to  the  Pugct  Sound 
region  that  of  tide-water  Virginia,  came  in  for  no  end  of 
ridicule,  and  the  whole  section  the  road  was  to  traverse 
was  sneered  at  and  laughed  at  as  "  Jay  Cooke's  banana 
belt."  Yet  the  statements  in  regard  to  climate  and  soil 
made  in  Cooke's  publications  were  not  exaggerations. 
Read  to-day,  in  the  light  of  the  present  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  the  country  between  the  Red  River  of  the  North 
and  the  Pacific,  they  appear  to  be  truthful  descriptions. 
A  few  of  them  may  properly  be  quoted  here  in  justifica- 
tion of  the  fiscal  agents  of  the  Company  and  of  the  Comi- 
pany  itself,  in  inviting  public  confidence  in  the  enterprise 
of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  by  the  Northern  route. 

On  the  subject  of  climate,  the  most  widely  circulated 
of  the  pamphlets  issued  by  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  said : 

"The  belt  of  country  tributary  to  the  iNr^fthern  Pacific  road  is  williiii  the 
parallels  of  latitude  which  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  America,  embrace  the 
most  enlightened,  creative,  conquering  and  progressive  populations.     It  is 


174 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


within  the  climatic  conditions  illustrated  on  the  maps  by  the  curvature 
northward  of  the  isothermal  lines  of  mean  temperature  which  mark  on  llie 
Pacific  coast  in  latitude  47  North,  the  mililness  of  the  climate  of  the 
Chesapeake  Day  on  the  Atlantic  side  in  latitude  38,  and  which  give  to  ilic 
region  of  this  railroad  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Pacific  a  milder 
atmosphere  than  is  to  be  found  anywhere  else  at  the  same  distance  nortli  of 
the  equator,  except  upon  the  western  coast  of  Europe.  The  suniniL". 
isothermal  line  of  70  degrees,  which  in  Europe  passes  through  .Soullieni 
France,  Lombardv,  and  the  wheat-growing  region  of  Southern  Russia, 
strikes  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States  at  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island,  and  passing  tlirough  Central  Pennsylvania,  Northern  01;io,  and 
Indiana,  diverges  northwesterly,  and  runs  up  into  the  liritisli  Possessions  to 
latitude  sdP,  at  least  3C0  miles  north  of  the  line  of  this  road. 

"The  face  of  this  mildness  of  climate  is  abundantly  established.  Nowliere 
between  the  Lakes  and  the  Pacific  is  the  climate  colder  than  in  Minnesota; 
and  this  great  State  is  not  surpassed  as  a  grain-growing  region,  or  in  healih- 
fulness  of  atmosphere.  The  seasons  of  Dakota  are  very  similar  to  those  of 
Iowa,  and  from  Dakota  westward  the  climate  steadily  modifies,  until,  in 
Oregon  and  Washington  Territory,  there  is  almost  no  winter  at  all  aside 
from  a  rainy  season,  as  in  California.  In  many  portions  of  Dakota,  Mon- 
tana and  Northern  Idaho,  cattle  and  horses  range  out  all  winter,  and  keep 
in  excellent  condition  on  '.iic  nutritious  grasses  of  the  plains  and  valleys. 
Records  kept  by  Government  officers  at  the  various  military  stations  on  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Missouri  show  that  tlie  average  annual  temperature  for 
a  series  of  years  has  been  warmer  in  Northern  Montana  than  at  Chicago  or 
Albany. 

"  This  remarkable  modification  of  climate,  the  existence  of  whicli  no  well- 
informed  person  now  questions,  is  due  to  several  natural  causes,  chief  among 
which  are  probably  these  :  First,  the  mountain  country  lying  between  the 
44th  and  50th  parallels  is  lower  by  some  3,000  feet  than  the  belt  lying 
immediately  south.  The  highest  point  ou  the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
road  is  3,300  feet  lower  than  the  corresponding  summit  of  the  Union  and 
Central  line.  Both  the  Rocky  and  the  Cascade  ranges,  where  they  are 
crossed  by  the  Northern  Pacific  route,  are  broken  down  to  low  elevations 
compared  with  their  height  four  hundred  miles  southward.  This  difference 
in  altitude  would  itself  account  for  much  of  the  difference  in  climate,  as 
three  degrees  of  temperature  arc  allowed  lor  each  thousand  feet  of  eleva- 
tion. Rut,  second,  the  warm  winds  from  the  South  Pacific  which  prevail 
in  winter,  and  (aided  by  the  warm  ocean  current  corresponding  to  our  At- 
lantic gulf-stream)  produce  the  genial  climate  of  our  Pacific  coast,  pass  over 
the  low  mountain  ridges  to  the  north  of  latitude  44°,  and  carry  their  soften- 
ing  cflTect  far  inland,  giving  to  Washington  Territory  the  climate  of  Virginia, 
and  to  Montana  the  mildness  of  Southern  Ohio." 


SALE  OF   THE  7-30  BONDS. 


175 


Long 


This  is  the  exact  truth  concerning  the  climate  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  belt ;  yet  so  wedded  are  most  unin- 
formed people  to  the  ignorant  assumption  that  latitude 
strictly  governs  climate,  that  it  is  disbelieved  by  many  to- 
cla\",and  was  generally  scouted  when  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company  M'as  overtaken  by  financial  disaster.  The 
same  pamphlet  goes  on  to  say : 

"  One  of  the  causes  heretofore  cited  as  lielping  to  produce  the  mild  seasons  of 
the  New  Northwest — namely,  the  depression  of  the  mountain  ranges  toward 
tlie  north — may  also  account  for  the  cduable  rain-fall  in  nearly  all  parts  of 
this  vast  area.  The  southwest  winds,  saturated  by  the  evaporation  of 
ihe  tropics,  carry  the  rain-clouds  eastward  over  the  continental  divide,  and 
distribute  their  moisture  over  the  fertile  belt  stretching  from  the  mountains 
to  the  lakes.  Farther  south  the  mountain  ridges,  with  their  greater  alti- 
tude, act  as  a  wall  against  the  warm,  moist,  west  winds  ;  hence  the  colder 
winters  and  the  comparative  dryness  of  much  of  th'^  region  south  of  Mon- 
tana and  east  of  the  mountains.  That  the  country  tributary  to  the  Northern 
I'.icitic  Railroad,  and  embracing  its  land  grant,  has,  with  some  exceptions, 
ail  adequate  supply  of  atmospheric  moisture  for  all  purposes  of  agriculture 
and  stock-raising,  there  is  no  question.  The  proof  is  abundant  and  con- 
clusive, and  is  made  up  of  the  concurrent  testimony  of  settlers  who  have 
spent  years  in  all  portions  of  the  great  fertile  belt,  and  of  (Government  officers 
wlio  have  measured  and  reported  the  rain-fall  for  successive  seasons." 

There  was  no  misrepresentation  in  the  above  paragraph, 
nor  was  there  in  this,  relating  to  soil : 

"  Admittedly  there  are  detached  portions  of  the  vast  region  tributary  to 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  where  for  the  present  the  rain-fall  is  insuffi- 
cii'nt  for  most  crops,  and  irrigation  is  necessary  ;  yet  even  in  such  localities 
t!ie  grazing  is  usually  good.  Rut,  makin;;  ample  allowance  for  the  occasional 
absence  of  sufficient  moisture,  this  Land  Grant  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Road  is,  as  a  whole,  abundantly  irrigated  by  nature.  The  wonderful  net- 
work of  living  brooks,  lakes,  streams,  and  navigable  rivers  with  which  this 
region  is  supplied  is  pcrlir.ps  its  most  striking  feature.  Those  who  have 
traversed  the  whole  of  the  fertile  belt  from  the  Mississippi  to  Paget  Sound, 
claim  that  there  is  no  other  section  of  the  continent  of  eipial  area  which,  all 
tilings  considered,  surpasses  this  in  natural  resources,  including  a  fertile 
soil ;  and  the  evidence  is  superabundant  in  support  of  this  view.  That  the 
average  of  soil  in  those  portions  of  Minnesota,  Dakota,  Mcjntana,  Idaho, 
Washington,  and  Oregon  adjacent  to  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  is  good, 
there  is  absolutely  no  (luestion.  Of  alkali-plains,  sand,  and  sage-brush  there 
i->  next  to  none  at  all  on  the  route." 


Ill:' 


176 


NORTHERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


From  another  pamphlet  of  a  few  months'  earlier  date, 
these  extracts  arc  taken  relating  to  wheat-raising,  pastur- 
age, timber  and  minerals: 

"  Pages  of  incontestable  evidence  could  be  introduced  here  to  prove  that 
nowhere  in  the  world  can  such  large  crops  of  wheat,  barley,  rye,  oats,  pota- 
toes and  other  roots  be  raised  as  on  and  about  the  Land  Grant  of  tlie  Xorth- 
crn  Pacific  Railroad  ;  that  nowhere  in  the  world  are  there  such  apples,  pears, 
plums,  and  clierries  as  those  grown  on  and  about  all  the  Giant  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  ;  that  fruit-trees  there  invari;  jly  bear  generally  in  two,  at 
most  in  three  years,  from  the  graft ;  that  the  curculio  and  other  insects  de- 
structive to  fruit  here  are  wholly  unknown  there  ;  that  nowhere  do  shade, 
fuel,  and  fruit-trees  grow  so  rapidly,  vigor-»i'sly,  and  beautifully,  as  there  : 
that  nowhere  in  the  world  is  there  a  gias  ue  compared  to  that  combina- 

tion of  timothy  and  oats,  the  '  bunch  grass,  »vhich  covers  most  of  this  Land 
Grant,  and  which  on  the  ground  is  perfect  hay  in  July  and  in  January  ;  that 
nowhere  is  such  possibility  of  grazing  cattle  in  vast  herds  without  shelter, 
prepared  fodder,  or  care,  as  exists  all  over  the  regions  to  be  traversed  by  die 
Road  on  both  sides  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  whose  universally  diffused 
'  bunch  grass '  has  justly  given  to  it  the  name  of '  the  graziers'  paradise.'  ' 

"  The  materials  for  the  greatest  lumber  trade  the  world  has  seen 
exist  on  and  near  the  Western  end  of  this  Land  Grant,  and  maintain  with  a 
single  interruption  to  the  eastern  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  Forests  of 
fir  of  three  varieties,  of  cedar  of  two  varieties,  of  pine,  spruce,  hemlock,  cypress, 
ash,  curled  maple,  and  black  and  white  oak  envelop  Puget  Sound,  and 
cover  the  larger  jiart  of  Washington  Territory,  surpassing  the  woods  of  all 
the  rest  of  the  globe  in  the  size,  quality  and  quantity  of  the  timber.  The 
firs  in  innumerable  localities  will  cut  120,000  feet  to  the  acre.  Trees  are 
common  whose  circumferences  range  from  20  to  50  feet,  and  whose  heiglits 
vary  from  200  to  upward  of  300  feet.  Tlie  paradox  of  firs  too  large  to  be 
profitably  cut  into  lumber,  is  to  be  seen  all  over  Western  Washington. 
These  are  rejected  by  tlie  choppers,  and  trees  having  diameters  ranging  only 
from  30  to  53  inches  are  selected,  and  these  yield  from  70  to  200  feet  of  solid 
trunk  free  from  limbs  and  knots.  The  cedars  of  Washington  are  as  thick, 
through,  as  the  firs,  but  not  as  tall.  So  prodigal  is  Nature  in  this  region,  and 
so  wastefully  fastidious  is  man,  that  lands  yielding  only  30,000  feet  of  lum- 
ber to  the  acre  are  considered  to  be  hardly  worth  cutting  over,  l-'oresls 
yielding  100,000  feet  and  upward  are  common  all  around  Puget  Souiul. 
The  wood  of  the  firs  and  cedars,  unequaled  for  lightness,  straightness  of 
cleavage,  and  resistance  of  moisture,  and  stronger  than  oak  ami  more  reten- 
tive of  spikes  and  tree-nails,  will  supplant  all  other  material  for  ship-bailding 
on  both  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  This  product  of  tlie  as  yet  scarcely 
scarred  forests  of  Washington  Territory,  was  sold  in  California,  South 
America,  Austr.alia,  Japan,  China,  the  East  Indias  and  Europe. 


■  date, 
astur- 


ive  tliat 
S  pota- 
Xortli- 
>  pcai-s, 
;  of  the 
two,  at 
cts  (Ic- 
shadc, 
there  : 
■nbina- 
Land 
';  that 
lielter, 
by  the 
iffiiscd 

seen 
tt'itli  a 
:sts  of 
press, 
,  and 
of  all 

The 
;s  are 
lights 
to  be 
gtoii. 
;onIy 
solid 
hick, 
.  and 
luni- 
irests 
iind. 

3S   of 

len- 
ding 
•cely 
oulh 


Upper  Falls  of  the  Yellowstone   National  Tark. 


SALE   OF   THE   7-30  BOXDS. 


177 


"  From  the  eastern  foothills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Paget  Sound, 
this  Land  Grant  l)L"lts  tlie  richest  mineral  deposits  on  this  continent,  con- 
sisting of  gold,  silver,  platinum,  lead,  copper,  iron  and  rock-salt.  The  banks 
and  bars  of  every  stream  running  from  the  Rocky  range  into  the  Columbia, 
Yellowstone,  Missouri,  and  Puget  Sound  will  pan  out  gold.  At  the  eastern 
end  of  the  Grant,  and  on  or  near  tlic  line  of  the  road,  arc  inexhaustible  de- 
posits of  copper  and  of  the  famed  Lake  Superior  magnetic  iron  ores. 

"  This  Land  Grant  has  an  abundance  of  fuel — coal,  lignite,  and  wood. 
Bituminous  coal  of  the  best  quality  outcrops  for  thirty  miles  on  the  eastern 
riin  of  Puget  Sound.  Three  veins  have  been  opened  which  can  be  cheaply 
worked,  the  lowest  being  sixteen  feet  thick.  West  of  the  Cascade  range  of 
mountains  coal  is  found  and  mined  at  different  points  all  the  way  from  Wil- 
lamette Valley  to  Bellingham  Bay.  It  has  been  found  near  the  Cowlitz  and 
Snoqualmie  Pass  of  the  Cascades.  It  outcrops  on  the  Yellowstone  and  the 
headwaters  of  the  Missouri.  It  is  extensively  mined  for  Government  and 
public  use  at  the  great  bend  of  the  Missouri. 

"The  way-traffic  and  way-travel  on  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  will  be 
that  which  will  inevitably  spring  from  a  wide  belt  of  this  continent  whose 
soil  will  yield  immense  crops  of  grain,  fruit,  and  vegetables,  whose  pastur- 
age is  the  marvel  of  travelers,  the  mildness  of  whose  climate  is  seemingly 
a  jiaradox,  but  is  superabundantly  testified  to  by  man  and  beast.  The 
domestic  cattle  of  Montana,  Idaho,  Washington,  and  Dakota,  range  out  all 
winter  and  are  fat  in  March.  The  Mexican  horses,  stolen  by  the  Sioux, 
Chcycnnes,  and  Assiniboincs,  are  turned  out  to  shift  for  themselves  on  the 
fall  of  snow,  from  latitude  45  up  to  53,  and  come  in  in  the  spring  fat,  sleek, 
and  strong.  Unsheltered,  unfed,  they  thrive  in  the  open  air  on  grass 
readied  by  pawing  olTwith  their  hoofs  the  occasional  covers  of  snow.  Much 
of  the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  road  passes  through  the  winter  homes  of 
countless  herds  of  buffaloes,  elk,  deer,  and  antelopes." 

Making  some  allowance  for  the  enthusiastic  style  of  these 
paragraphs,  their  statements  of  fact  are  truthful.  Indeed, 
much  more  might  have  been  added  concerning  the  grain- 
growing  capacity  of  the  Dakota  prairies,  and  the  rolling 
upland  plains  of  Eastern  Washington,  and  of  the  fertility 
of  the  Yellowstone  Valley,  had  the  character  of  these 
regions  been  understood  then  as  now.  Enough  has  been 
printed  here  to  show  that  the  statements  concerning  the 
country  tributary  to  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  on 
which  the  first  bonds  issued  upon  its  credit  were  sold, 
were  not  untruthful  or  unduly  colored  to  stimulate  in- 
vestment. 


n 


12 


CHAPTER   XXII. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  NORTHWEST  IN    1870. 

Northern  Minnesota  a  Wilderness — No  Farms  in  the  Red  River  Valley— 
The  Country  of  the  Savage  Sioux — The  Mining  Settlements  in  Genual 
Montana — Another  Uninhabited  Region  Beyond — The  Vigorous  Young 
Settlements  of  Oregon  and  Puget  Sound — Their  Aid  to  the  Railroad 
Enterprise — The  Obstacles  to  be  Surmounted — 2,000  Miles  of  Railway 
to  be  Built  Through  a  Wilderness. 

Let  us  now  glance  at  the  condition  of  the  Northwest 
in  the  summer  of  1870,  when  the  managers  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad  began  the  work  of  construction  at 
Thomson  Junction  in  Northern  Minnesota.  The  Lake 
Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad  had  just  been  built, 
with  the  aid  of  a  land  grant  embracing  much  valuable 
pine  lands,  from  St.  Paul  to  the  new  town  of  Duluth,  laid 
out  on  speculation  in  the  woods  on  the  lake  shore.  Across 
the  Bay  of  Superior  was  a  straggling  little  hamlet  called 
Superior  City,  which  could  count,  perhaps,  twenty  years 
of  sleepy  existence,  hybernating  in  winter  when  the  lake 
vas  tightly  frozen,  and  living  at  all  times  chiefly  on  hope. 
Beyond  these  two  rival  places  there  was  not  a  town,  vil- 
lage, or  hamlet  westward  on  or  near  the  line  marked  out 
for  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  for  a  distance  of  over  a 
thousand  miles.  Between  the  head  of  the  lake  and  the 
mining  camps  among  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  Montana 
no  abodes  of  civilized  men  existed,  save  two  or  three 
military  posts  and  Indian  agencies,  and  a  few  isolated 
trading  stations.  Northern  Minnesota  was  a  forest  into 
which  the  lumberman  had  not  yet  penetrated,  save  for  a 
few  miles  back  of  Lake  Superior.  The  beautiful  region 
in  the  western  part  of  the  State,  dotted  with  little  lakes 


COXD/TIOX  OF   THE  NORTHWEST  IN  1S70, 


179 


separated  from  each  other  by  park-like  stretches  of  wood- 
land, had  but  lately  been  the  home  of  the  warlike  Sioux, 
and  was  then  quite  destitute  of  population.  On  the  Red 
River  of  the  north  there  were  two  houses  at  the  old  Hud- 
son's Bay  trading  post  of  Georgetown,  and  further  up  the 
stream  the  ruins  of  a  settlement  at  Brcckenridge  which 
the  Sioux  had  destroyed.  No  farms  had  been  opened, 
and  the  vast  alluvial  plain  bordering  the  river  and  stretch- 
ing far  northward  to  Lake  Winnipeg  was  believed  by  most 
army  officers  who  had  traversed  it  to  be  worthless  for  ag- 
riculture. Where  the  thriving  city  of  Winnipeg  now 
stands  in  Manitoba  there  was  only  a  British  fort,  under 
whose  walls  a  few  Canadian  traders  and  half-breeds  had 
built  their  huts. 

Between  the  Red  River  and  the  Missouri  the  country 
was  still  claimed  by  the  Sisseton  and  W^ahpeton  bands  of 
the  Sioux  Indians,  whose  title  was  not  finally  extinguished 
until  1872.  Beyond  the  Missouri,  and  as  far  west  as  the 
Belt  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  whole  v.".st  re- 
gion of  valleys,  plains  and  mountains  was  in  the  undis- 
puted occupancy  of  the  savages.  It  was  the  buffalo 
hunting-ground,  to  which  the  tribes  resorted  from  the 
North  and  the  South,  and  even  from  beyond  the  Rockies, 
for  their  annual  supplies  of  jerked  meat  and  skins.  Near 
the  Falls  of  the  Missouri  a  little  town  had  grown  up  at 
Fort  Benton,  to  which  steamboats  ran  in  the  season  of 
high  water,  taking  goods  for  the  Indian  reservations  and 
for  transport  by  wagon  to  the  distant  mines  of  Montana, 
and  bringing  back  buffalo  robes,  bullion  and  beef  cattle. 
In  the  high  valleys  and  gulches  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
system  there  were  a  few  scattered  mining  settlements, 
quite  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  miners 
had  developed  a  unique,  self-sustaining,  and  self-reliant 
little  community,  making  their  own  laws,  and  executing 
them  by  the  summary  process  of  Judge  Lynch'b  court 


i8o 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


when  cutthroats  and  robbers  threatened  to  get  the  upper 
hand  of  orderly  society.  They  had  been  given  a  ter- 
ritorial organization  by  Congress,  and  had  developed  such 
prosperous  little  towns  as  Helena  (their  capital),  Boze- 
man,  Deer  Lodge,  Virginia  City,  and  Bannock.  They 
hauled  their  supplies  from  the  head  of  steamboat  navi- 
gation on  the  Missouri,  more  than  two  hundred  miles 
from  the  principal  mining  camps,  or,  still  further,  from 
the  newly  completed  Union  Pacific  Railway  in  Utah. 
The  Montana  settlements  dated  from  1862,  when  a  party 
of  men  came  up  the  river  to  Fort  Benton  with  horses, 
wagons  and  tents,  and  struck  off  into  the  mountains  in 
search  of  the  gold  of  which  hunters  had  spread  report. 
They  found  the  yellow  grains  and  nuggets  in  the  beds  of 
the  little  streams  that  ran  out  of  the  mountain  gorges. 
Soon  they  were  joined  by  parties  of  adventurous  emi- 
grants, who  traveled  a  thousand  miles  with  ox-teanis 
across  the  plains  from  Western  Missouri — deserters  from 
the  contending  armies  there,  or  people  who  were  con- 
fused by  the  din  of  the  Civil  War  raging  around  them, 
and,  not  wishing  to  risk  their  lives  on  either  side,  packed 
their  families  and  movables  into  wagons  and  struck  out 
for  the  new  mines  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Detach- 
ments of  gold  hunters  also  came  from  California,  believ- 
ing, like  all  of  their  wandering,  reckless  tribe,  that  luck 
was  always  just  ahead  of  them  in  some  new  "  diggings," 
and  with  them  mingled  discharged  laborers,  gamblers, 
and  adventurers  of  all  sorts,  from  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
whose  ends  were  advancing  across  the  deserts  from  the 
Missouri  and  the  Golden  Gate  to  meet  in  the  basin  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake.  It  was  a  strange,  wild  aggregation  of 
reckless,  rascally,  daring,  enterprising  and  industrious 
elements;  but  with  the  wonderful  self-organizing  faculty 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  order  was  soon  evolved  from 
chaos.     Some  of  the  emigrants  found  that  the  raising  of 


COXDITIOy  OF   THE   NORTHWEST  IX  1870. 


181 


grain  and  vegetables  in  the  valleys,  by  the  aid  of 
irrigation,  was  more  profitable  than  mining,  and  open- 
ing farms,  grew  rich  on  prices  based  on  the  enor- 
mous cost  of  transportation  from  the  East.  Others 
began  stock-raising ;  others  engaged  in  the  mechanical 
trades.  Thus  it  was  that  by  the  time  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  began,  there  was 
in  the  mountains,  a  thousand  miles  away,  an  important 
community  numbering,  perhaps,  20,000  souls,  greatly 
interested  in  its  progress. 

West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  on  the  headwaters  of 
the  streams  running  into  the  Columbia,  were  other  set- 
tlements of  miners  in  the  Territory  of  Idaho,  similar  in 
character  and  history  to  those  of  Montana.  The  rugged 
range  of  the  Salmon  River  Mountains,  having  a  general 
cast  and  west  course,  divided  the  Idaho  villages  and 
camps  into  two  distinct  groups.  The  southernmost,  hav- 
ing its  center  at  Boise,  found  an  outlet  to  California  by 
way  of  the  Central  Pacific  road.  The  northern  group  had 
its  depot  of  supplies  at  Lcwiston,  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Snake  and  Clearwater  Rivers,  a  point  accessible  from 
Oregon  by  navigable  waters.  On  both  sides  of  these  two 
rivers  spread  out  an  extensive  stretch  of  high  table-lands, 
thickly  covered  with  rank,  nutritious  grasses,  and  of 
great  grain-producing  capacity.  These  table-lands,  here 
reaching  from  the  bare  basaltic  plain  of  the  Columbia  to  the 
encircling  rim  of  the  Bitter  Root  and  Blue  Mountains,  may 
be  roughly  estimated  to  have  a  length  of  three  hundred, 
and  a  width  of  fifty  to  one  hundred,  miles.  This  region  was 
wholly  destitute  of  permanent  settlement  in  1870,  save  near 
its  southwestern  extremity,  where  the  town  of  Walla- 
Walla  stood,  and  where  farmers  had  begun  the  cultiva- 
tion of  wheat.  There  were  a  few  military  posts  and  a 
few  Protestant  and  Jesuit  missions  on  the  Upper  Colum- 
bia and  Spokane  Rivers  and  Lake  Coeur  d'Alene ;  but  they 


1 82 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD, 


could  hardly  be  called  settlements,  for  their  business  was 
exclusively  with  the  Indian  tribes. 

Beyond  the  Cascade  Mountains,  however,  there  was  a 
remarkably  vital  and  enterprising  young  community  in 
Oregon,  finding  its  chief  support  in  the  wheat-fields  of  the 
Willamette  Valley.  Numbering  less  than  100,000  souls 
at  the  time,  this  vigorous  little  body  of  people  had  ac- 
complished great  results  in  a  single  generation.  They 
were  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world  by 
many  stretches  of  barren  desert  and  rugged  mountains. 
The  nearest  large  city,  San  Francisco,  was  650  miles  dis- 
tant by  sea.  Yet  in  their  isolation  they  built  a  city  of 
their  own  ;  they  conquered  and  tilled  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  acres  of  virgin  soil ;  they  placed  steam- 
boats on  their  rivers  ;  they  built  railways  around  the 
two  obstructions  to  navigation  on  the  Columbia,  the 
Cascades  and  the  Dalles,  and  thus  established  by  boat 
and  rail  a  system  of  communication  with  the  f^r  in- 
terior ;  they  attracted  the  commerce  of  the  world  to 
their  shores.  North  of  them,  in  Washington  Territory, 
was  another  community  nearly  allied  to,  and,  in  some 
respects,  an  offshoot  of  their  own,  sparsely  grouped 
around  the  beautiful,  deep  waters  of  Puget  .Sound,  and 
largely  engaged  in  cutting  and  exporting  the  magnificent 
timber  growing  upon  its  shores.  To  these  two  commu- 
nities the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  meant  quick  com- 
munication with  the  great  East,  better  markets,  an  in- 
flux of  population,  new  industries — in  a  word,  growth 
and  prosperity  in  all  ways.  From  them,  and  their  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress,  the  enterprise  received  earnest  and 
valuable  support. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  brief  review  of  the  condition 
of  the  country  across  which  the  Northern  Pacific  line 
was  to  be  thrown,  that  the  enterprise  of  building  the  road 
was  one  of  great  magnitude,  and  was  beset  by  peculiar 


COXniT/O.V  OF   THE  XORTIIWEST  IX  1870. 


183 


difficulties.  For  the  first  thousanrl  miles  there  was  abso- 
hitely  no  civilized  population.  The  line  was  projected 
into  vacancy,  so  far  as  traffic  and  facilities  for  construc- 
tion were  concerned.  It  had  to  carry  its  supplies  and  its 
laboring  force  with  it,  and  whatever  business  it  obtained 
it  was  obliged  to  create  by  attracting  settlers  to  the  wild 
regions  it  penetrated.  Farther  west  it  reached  a  mount- 
ain district  in  Montana,  about  two  hundred  miles  across, 
very  sparsely  settled,  in  widely  separated  mining  camps 
and  little  strips  of  irrigated  valleys,  by  a  community  full 
of  energy  and  of  possibility  of  future  growth,  but  rais- 
ing no  surplus  of  supplies,  and  having  no  unemployed 
laboring  population  to  furnish  for  railroad  building.  Then 
came  another  wide  stretch  of  uninhabited  country,  and 
then  at  the  extreme  western  end  of  the  line  the  new  set- 
tlements of  Oregon  and  Washington,  still  too  feeble  in 
numbers,  and  too  much  engrossed  in  subduing  fields  and 
forests  and  in  securing  local  transportation  lines  for  their 
immediate  home  wants,  to  furnish  cither  capital  or  labor 
for  a  great  transcontinental  road.  They  were  of  ines- 
timable advantage  to  the  undertaking,  however,  in  the 
facilities  they  had  already  established  for  river  and  sea 
transit,  and  for  the  supply  of  food  products.  Small  as 
were  then  the  settlements  of  the  Pacific  Northwest  they 
were  centers  of  advanced  civilization,  and  were  in  con- 
stant communication  by  sea  with  the  great  cities  of  the 
world.  They  had  neither  labor  nor  money  to  spare  for 
the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise,  but  they  had  the  con- 
veniences for  the  transfer  and  application  of  both.  Con- 
struction work  at  the  western  end  of  the  line  encountered 
no  more  serious  difficulties  than  at  the  eastern  end,  save 
those  arising  from  the  great  cost  of  material,  the  high 
rate  of  wages  for  skilled  labor,  and  the  necessity  of  im- 
porting Chinese  labor  for  grading  and  tracklaying.  It 
was  in  the  vast  interior,  without  roads,  bridges,  or  pop- 


1 84 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ulation,  that  formidable  obstacles  were  encountered.  The 
problem  was  to  build  two  thousanc'  miles  of  railroad, 
within  a  scanty  limit  of  time,  and  with  uncertain  finan- 
cial resources,  throui^h  a  country  known,  for  the  most 
part,  only  to  the  aboriginal  savages  who  roamed  over  it. 


I  r;»falH  .1 


The 
Iroad, 
finan- 
most 
LT  it. 


CHAPTER  XXIIl. 


r. 


rt 


BUILDINC;   THE    ROAD. 

Construction  Work  begun  in  1870 — Surveys  in  Minnesota — A  Committee 
sent  to  the  Pacific  Coast — Purchase  of  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Stocl-; — Du- 
hilh  and  Superior — Completion  of  the  Minnesota  Division — Work  begun 
on  tlic  line  from  tlie  Columbia  River  to  Puget  Sound — Controlling  Inter- 
est in  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Comjiany  Bought — Scarcity  of  Funds 
in  1S72 — President  Smith  Resigns — A  Review  of  his  Administration. 

COXSTRUCTIOX  ^vork  on  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
began  in  the  summer  of  1870.  With  the  five  millions  of  dol- 
lars received  from  Jay  Cooke  and  Company  and  the  pros- 
pective large  receipts  from  the  sale  of  bonds,  the  President 
and  directors  felt  that  the  time  had  come  for  energetic 
efforts  to  build  the  line.  Detailed  surveys  were  completed 
dtiring  the  spring  from  Thomson's  Junction  to  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Mississippi  River,  where  a  town  was  laid  out,  and 
named  Brainerd,in  honor  of  the  father  of  President  Smith's 
wife.  In  April,  Messrs.  Rice,  Cass  and  Ogden,  of  the 
Board,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  proceed  to  the 
Pacific  coast  and  locate  t;ie  main  line  and  the  branch  be- 
tween the  Columbia  Rive,  id  Puget  Sound,  and  to  select 
sites  for  future  towns.  At  the  same  time  the  purchase  of 
a  controlling  interest  in  the. stock  of  the  St.  Paul  and 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  was  effected.  This  Company 
had  a  considerable  land  grant,  and  was  organized  to  build 
a  system  of  roads  extending  from  St.  Paul  to  the  British 
line  at  St.  Vincent  and  also  to  Breckenridge  on  the  Red 
River,  and  to  Brainerd.  The  importance  of  St.  Panl  as 
the  first  great  railroad  center  northwest  of  Chicago  was 
fully  realized  by  the  Northern  Pacific  managers,  and  by 
controlling  the  stock  of  the  St.  Paid  and  Pacific  Company, 
they  expected  to  be  able  to  mako  its  lines  virtually  exten- 


1 86 


NORTHERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


sions  and  feeders  of  their  own  road.  They  also  appreciated 
the  value  of  the  then  entirely  undeveloped  Valley  of  the 
Red  River  of  the  North  as  a  region  likely  to  furnish 
heavy  traffic  in  the  future,  and  rightly  considered  that  rich 
agricultural  region  as  properly  a  part  of  the  area  of  coun- 
try which  by  its  geographical  position  was  naturally  trib- 
utary to  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise.  They  went  so 
far  in  the  execution  of  the  wise  plan  thus  early  matured 
for  controlling  the  lines  chartered  to  be  built  from  St. 
Paul  to  the  Red  River  Valley  and  the  Manitoba  boundary, 
as  to  furnish  large  sums  of  money,  and  to  direct  the  location 
and  construction  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  St.  Paul 
and  Pacific  system ;  but  its  realization  was  afterwards  frus- 
trated by  the  financial  troubles  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company,  which  compelled  it  to  part  with  the  stock  of 
the  other  company.  The  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  went  into 
bankruptcy,  was  reorganized  under  the  name  of  the  St. 
Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  Railroad  Company,  and 
has  since  become  a  successful  corporation,  paralleling  the 
Red  River  on  both  sides  with  its  lines,  and  competing  with 
its  former  owner  for  the  traffic  of  much  of  that  region. 

In  June,  1870,  a  contract  was  made  for  the  construction 
of  the  Minnesota  Division  of  the  road,  and  ground  was 
broken  in  July,  at  Thomson's  Junction,  where  the  line 
left  the  La^:e  Superior  a; id  Mississippi  Railroad.  A 
half  interest  in  the  road  of  the  latter  company  from 
the  Junction  to  Duluth  was  purchased,  and  an  arti- 
ficial harbor  was  created  at  Duluth  by  cutting  a  canal 
across  the  low  sandy  peninsula  through  which  vessels 
could  enter  the  waters  of  the  bay.  The  town  of  Superior, 
lying  in  sight  from  Duluth  across  the  bay,  had  a  natural 
harbor,  and  had  been  waiting  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
for  the  railroad  to  give  it  prosperity.  Great  disappoint- 
ment was  felt  in  that  town  at  the  determination  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  to  make  its  terminus  at  Jay  Cooke's  new 


BUILDING    THE  ROAD. 


187 


speculative  city  of  Duluth,  and  the  Governor  of  Wisconsin 
was  induced  to  bring  suit  against  the  company  on  account 
of  a  dyke  constructed  in  Superior  Bay,  within  the  limits 
of  Minnesota,  which  it  was  alleged  was  detrimental  to  the 
harbor  of  Superior.  This  suit  was  withdrawn  on  the 
promise  of  the  Company  to  build  a  line  to  Superior  and 
to  put  that  place  on  an  equal  footing  with  Duluth  for  lake 
traffic ;  a  promise  which  the  Company  was  not  able  to  re- 
deem until  1882. 

During  the  summer  of  1870,  and  the  whole  year  of  1871, 
money  in  abundance  poured  into  the  treasury  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Company  from  the  sale  of  its  bonds  under 
the  Jay  Cooke  contract.  In  less  than  two  years'  time  nearly 
thirty  millions  of  dollars  were  received.  This  flow  of  funds 
stimulated  great  activity  and  far-reaching  enterprise,  and 
many  projects  were  set  on  foot  which  had  to  be  abandoned 
when  the  pressure  of  hard  times  came  upon  the  Company. 
The  Minnesota  Division  was  finished  to  Brainerd  in  1870, 
and  to  the  Red  River  in  1871.  Twenty-five  miles  of  the 
line  in  the  Valley  of  the  Cowlitz,  in  Washington  Terri- 
tory, were  graded  at  heavy  expense  in  1 870,  and  completed 
in  the  spring  of  1871.  W.  Milnor  Roberts,  of  Philadel- 
phia, was  now  the  Chief  Engineer,  Edwin  F.  Johnson  hav- 
ing been  partially  retired  with  the  title  of  Consulting  Engi- 
neer. Surveys  were  prosecuted  in  Dakota  and  Montana,  and 
on  the  Pacific  Coast.  A  line  was  located  from  Kalama  on 
the  Columbia  River  to  the  mouth  of  the  Snake  River,  and 
thence  to  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille.  In  February,  1872,  the 
Conipan)'  took  the  road  from  Brainerd  to  the  Red  River 
off  the  contractor's  hands,  and  shortly  afterwards  opened 
it  for  traffic.  A  lease  of  the  entire  line  of  the  Lake 
Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad  was  effected,  and  a 
controlling  interest  in  the  stock  of  the  Oregon  Steam 
Navigation  Company  was  purchased.  The  Navigation 
Company  operated  nearly  all  the  steamboat  lines  on  the 


188 


NOR  TIIERN  PA  CIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Columbia,  Snake  and  Willamette  Rivers  and  on  Puget 
Sound,  and  connected  with  a  line  of  ocean  steamers  to  San 
Francisco.  It  owned,  besides,  the  portage  railroads  around 
the  obstacles  to  navigation  in  the  Columbia  River,  at  the 
Dalles  and  the  Cascades.  By  the  purchase  of  this  stock 
the  Northern  Pacific  Company  acquired  possession  of 
nearly  all  the  transportation  facilities  then  existing  in 
Oregon  and  Washington  Territory.  This  exceedingly 
valuable  property  the  Company  was  obliged  to  give  up 
when  overtaken  by  the  financial  crisis  of  1873,  and  in  new 
hands  it  furnished  the  foundation  of  the  great  rail  and 
water  transit  system,  now  controlled  by  the  Oregon  Rail- 
way and  Navigation  Company. 

In  the  summer  of  1872,  the  Northern  Pacific  Company 
began  to  be  pressed  for  funds  to  go  on  with  the  work. 
Money  had  come  in  rapidly  and  been  spent  freely,  but 
the  market  had  taken  about  as  many  bonds  as  it  could  be 
persuaded  to  take,  even  by  the  lavish  and  indiscriminate 
advertising  which  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  still  kept  up.  There 
was  dissatisfaction  in  the  board  with  President  Smith's 
management ;  some  of  the  members  thinking  he  had 
gone  too  fast,  and  spent  money  too  rapidly  during  the 
two  preceding  years  ;  besides  his  duties  to  the  Vermont 
Central  Railroad,  of  which  he  was  receiver,  occupied  much 
of  his  time,  and  appeared  to  have  paramount  claims  upon 
him.  For  these  reasons  he  offered  his  resignation  on  the 
first  of  August,  1872,  and  it  was  accepted  to  take  effect 
on  the  first  of  October.  In  the  latter  part  of  August, 
Jay  Cooke  came  before  thi  board  of  directors  with  the  un- 
welcome news  that  the  Company  was  already  in  financial 
straits,  and  must  be  helped  out  by  a  loan  raised  on  the 
individual  credit  of  the  members  of  the  board.  The 
shadow  of  coming  calamity  had  already  fallen  upon  the 
enterprise,  and  the  completion  of  the  road  to  the  Missouri 
River  and  of  the  short  line  from  the  Columbia  River  to 


BUILDIXG    THE  ROAD. 


189 


List, 

c  un- 
ncial 
the 
The 
the 
ouri 
*r  to 


Puget  Sound,  before  the  crash  came  in   1873,  was  at  the 
cost  of  a  considerable  floating  debt. 

In  reviewing  the  pa  ♦:  brief  period  of  active  efforts  to 
build  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  beginning  in  1870 
and  ending  in  1873,  credit  must  be  accorded  to  President 
Smith  and  the  directors  for  zeal,  enterprise  and  far-sighted 
sagacity.  They  saw  the  importance  of  a  terminus  at  St. 
Paul,  not  contemplated  by  the  charter  of  the  road,  and 
of  a  control  of  the  lines  projected  in  the  Red  River  Val- 
ley. They  determined  upon  measures  for  a  line  to  the 
Michigan  boundary  to  connect  with  an  allif.d  line  across 
the  Northern  Peninsula  of  that  State  to  the  Sault.  They 
contemplated  the  building  of  branch  local  roads  in  North- 
ern Minnesota.  They  understood  that  the  Columbia 
River  line,  in  reaching  Puget  Sound  by  way  of  Portland, 
was  of  primary  importance,  and  wisely  subordinated  to 
it  the  shorter  line  across  the  Cascade  Mountains  origin- 
ally intended  to  be  the  main  road.  They  took  prompt 
measures  to  prevent  the  growth  of  the  rival  transporta- 
tion interest  in  Oregon,  which  afterwards,  when  separa- 
ted from  Northern  Pacific  control,  occupied  the  Columbia 
Valley  and  the  rich  wheat  region  beyond  Walla  Walla 
with  independent  lines  of  road,  and  was  a  powerful  com- 
petitor until  practically  united  with  the  Northern  Pacific 
in  1881  through  the  efforts  and  the  joint  presidency  of 
Henry  Villard.  The  faults  of  their  management  were  a 
too  lavish  use  of  money,  and  a  too  hopeful  view  of  the 
future.  They  acted  as  if  they  believed  their  treasury  to 
bo  a  widow's  cruse  of  oil  which  would  never  run  dry. 
The  thirty  millions  they  expended,  if  carefully  employed, 
even  in  that  day  of  hif^h  prices,  would  have  produced  a 
better  result  than  600  miles  of  road  burdened  with  a 
floating  debt  of  nearly  five  millions.  They  floated  with 
the  current  of  the  confident  and  extravagant  times,  with- 
out hearing  the  roar  of  the  breakers  ahead. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

PRESIDENCV   OF   GENFRAI.   CASS. 

A  Parenthesis  in  tiic  Affairs  of  the  Company — General  Cass's  Education  and 
Career  in  the  Army,  and  in  nir-inci; — lie  lUiilds  the  First  Iron  Diidge 
in  the  Country — Eslablislie.-i  tlie  Adam.i  Express  Company — rresidcnt  of 
tlie  ritlsburt^,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Chicago  Railroad — Joins  tlie  Sniidi 
Syndicate  to  Acquire  tlie  Northern  Pacific  Franchise — Selectin'j  a  Si;c 
for  a  Terminal  City  on  Pugtt  Sound — Why  Tacoma  was  Preferred — A 
Commission  Appointed  to  Settle  'he  Oue.tion — The  Tacoma  I-aud  Com- 
pany— General  Cass's  Speech  to  the  IVurd — His  Investment  of  Stock  in 
Red  River  Valley  Lands — The  Coii-Cheney  Farms— Features  of  his 
Administration. 


General  Cass's  admini-stration  is  described  by  him- 
self as  a  parenthesis  in  the  affairs  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company.  It  began  in  October,  1872,  and  lasted  until  he 
accepted  the  receivership  of  the  Company  in  the  bank- 
ruptcy proceedings  begun  in  March,  1875,  thus  covering 
the  period  of  depression  in  the  corporation's  affairs  fol- 
loH'cd  by  insolvenc}-,  and  ending  in  a  complete  and 
wholesome  reorganization  of  its  financial  basis.  During 
this  period  the  only  effort  in  the  way  of  construction  was 
to  push  forward  to  a  temporary  terminus  and  resting- 
place  at  the  ^lissouri  River,  the  controlling  policy  being 
to  retrench  expenses,  and  to  wait  for  better  times. 

General  Cass  was  born  in  Muskingum  County,  Ohio,  in 
18 10.  His  parents  were  of  New  England  birth.  When 
he  was  fourteen  years  old  he  was  sent  to  live  with  his 
uncle,  Lewis  Cass,  in  Detroit,  and  go  to  school.  Lewis 
Cass  was  then  Governor  of  Michigan  Territory.  Probably 
the  young  nephew  from  the  backwoods  of  Southern  Ohio 
acquired  his  political  convictions,  as  well  as  his  education, 
while  under  the  root  of  the  great  Democratic  statesman. 


1-s  fol- 
:   and 


being 


no,  in 


Ml 


|th  hk 
.cwis 

[bably 
Oh 


10 


at  ion, 


iman. 


Natural  Bridge,  Nalioiial  I'ark. 


w 


Til 
Ui 
wa 
aiu 
So 
1 8; 
nui 


out 
Th( 
Sta 
the 
spn 
dca 
him 
assi< 
first 
In  I 
part 
tion; 
then 
Hci 
servi 
Roai 
Pcnr 
first 
a  bn 
In 
towr 
west 
vent 
tran; 
men 
Exp 
thee 


PRESIDENCY  OF  GEiYERAL   CASS. 


191 


The  influence  of  the  yncle  secured  him  a  cadctship  in  the 
United  States  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  where  he 
was  contemporary  with  Jefferson  Davis,  Lee,  Johnston 
and  others,  who  afterwards  played  great  parts  in  the 
Southern  rebellion.  He  graduated  with  high  honors  in 
1832,  being  one  of  the  five  in  his  class  opposite  whose 
names  was  placed  the  star  of  special  merit. 

Reporting  to  General  Sco',..  **\  New  York,  he  was  sent 
out  to  the  Lakes  in  commai.  '  -  c  company  of  recruits. 
The  first  case  of  cholera  which  occurred  in  the  United 
States,  in  that  fatal  year,  was  in  his  company,  on  board 
the  steamer  Henry  Clay,  on  Lake  St.  Clair.  The  disease 
spread  so  rapidly  that  the  company  was  broken  up  by 
death  and  desertion,  and  the  young  lieutenant,  finding 
himself  without  a  command,  went  to  Washington,  and  was 
assigned  to  duty  with  the  Topographical  Engineers.  His 
first  work  was  the  survey  of  Provincetown  Harbor,  Mass. 
In  1833  he  was  transferred  to  the  Military  Engineer  De- 
partment, and  put  in  charge  of  the  rebuilding  of  the  Na- 
tional Road  through  Maryland,Yirginia  and  Pennsylvania, 
then  the  great  highway  between  the  East  and  the  West. 
He  resigned  from  the  army  in  1836,  but  continued  in  the 
service  of  the  Engineer  Department  upon  the  National 
Road,  west  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  until  1840;  returning  to 
Pennsylvania,  in  1837,  to  construct  upon  the  road  the 
first  iron  bridge  built  in  the  United  States.  It  spanned 
a  branch  of  the  Monongahela  River. 

In  1840,  Mr.  Cass  entered  commercial  life  in  the  little 
town  of  Brovv^nsville,  on  the  Monongahela  River,  in  South- 
western Pennsylvania.  He  was  successful  in  his  business 
ventures,  and  soon  began  to  turn  his  attention  to  the 
transportation  enterprises  which  grew  out  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  railway  system.  He  established  the  Adams 
Express  Company,  running  west  from  Baltimore,  and,  on 
the  consolidation  of  its  lines  in  1853,  became  its  president. 


192 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Afterwards  he  was  made  president  of  the  Ohio  and  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad,  the  eastern  link  of  what  soon  becan.L- 
the  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne  and  Chicago  Railroad.  Of 
this  latter  Company  he  was  president  for  twenty-five  years, 
building  the  western  \Jortion  of  its  road,  and  aiding  in  tlic 
construction  of  the  Richmond  ami  Fort  Wayne  Railroad, 
in  Indiana,  and  the  Grand  Rapids  and  Indiana  Road, 
leading  from  Fort  Wayne  to  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw. 

General  Cass  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  named  by 
Congress  to  organize  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany in  Chicago,  and  was  a  member  of  the  first  Board  of 
Directors  of  that  corporation.  He  declined  the  offices 
of  treasurer  and  president.  He  shared  at  the  time  the 
popular  distrust  of  the  enterprise,  and  supposed  that  the 
Government  would  be  obliged  for  many  years  to  make  ap- 
propriations to  keep  the  road  in  repair.  Very  few  men 
were  far-sighted  enough,  at  that  daj',  to  form  an  idea  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  traffic  which  would  be  developed  by 
the  first  railway  line  across  the  American  continent. 

General  Cass  became  a  member  of  the  Smith  syndicate 
which  took  possession  of  the  franchise  and  debts  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Company  (it  had  no  property)  in  1866,  the 
organization  of  which  has  been  sketched  in  a  precedingchap- 
ter.  As  president  of  one  of  the  trunk  lines  running  out 
of  Chicago,  he  felt  a  warm  interest  in  the  development  of 
the  Northwest,  and  was  willing  to  aid  any  promising  en- 
terprise looking  to  that  end.  He  did  not  think,  however, 
that  the  Northern  Pacific  road  could  be  got  through  to 
the  Pacific  coast  in  his  lifetime.  It  seemed  rather  an  affair 
of  the  next  generation.  With  his  old-fashioned,  anti- 
Federalist  views  of  the  powers  of  the  general  Government, 
he  did  not  look  with  much  favor  on  the  plan  of  getting  a 
Government  subsidy,  upon  which  his  associates  in  the  new 
board  built  their  hopes  of  being  able  to  proceed  with  the 
undertaking.     Still  he  was  willing  to  take  the  chances  of 


PRESIDENCY  OF  GENERAL    CASS. 


193 


the  project  in  company  with  other  leading'  railway  mana- 
^^crs,  and  advance  money  to  keep  it  aHve. 

General  Cass's  term  of  office,  as  president  of  the  Com- 
pany, began  October  1st,  1S72.  He  was  on  Puget  Sound 
at  the  time  as  a  member  of  the  committee  of  the  Board 
appointed  to  visit  the  Pacific  coast,  to  select  a  location  for 
a  terminal  city,  and  regulate  the  affairs  of  the  Company. 
The  other  members  were  Messrs.  Ogden,  Billings,  Can- 
field,  Wright,  and  Windom.  The  committee  cruised 
about  the  Sound  for  a  week  on  the  steamer  North 
Pacific,  accompanied  by  the  company's  chief  engineer, 
W.  Milnor  Roberts,  looking  for  a  good  location  for  the  big 
city  which  it  was  expected  would  spring  up  wherever  the 
company  elected  to  fix  its  tide-water  terminus.  There 
were  no  towns  on  the  Sound  at  the  time  worthy  of  the 
name ;  the  only  settlements,  beside  the  village  of  Olym- 
pia,  the  capital  of  Washington  Territory,  being  a  few 
saw-mill  hamlets.  They  first  examined  01ympia,and  de- 
cided against  it,  because  the  receding  tide  left  its  port  a 
wide  expanse  of  mud  and  mussel  shells  for  half  of  every 
twenty-four  hours.  Steilacoom  seemed  to  be  upon  a 
strait  rather  than  on  a  good  roadstead.  Seattle,  then  a 
petty  lumbering  place  of,  perhaps,  two  score  of  houses, 
was  objectionable  because  of  its  steep  hill  and  lack  of 
level  ground  for  depot,  yards  and  sidings.  The  other 
places  lower  down  the  Sound  were  too  far  distant  from 
the  Columbia  River.  The  road  from  Kalama,  on  the 
Columbia,  was  then  under  construction  northward  up  the 
valley  of  the  Cowlitz,  and  the  question  to  be  settled  was 
where  it  should  strike  the  Sound.  Considerations  of 
economy  had  already  begun  to  press  upon  the  board.  They 
wanted  to  start  building  at  the  nearest  point  on  the  Sound 
where  they  could  find  a  good  harbor,  good  shore  facilities 
for  wharves,  and  plenty  of  cheap  land  to  acquire  for  the 
future  city.  So  they  pitched  upon  Tacoma,  on  Corn- 
ea 


194 


XORTJIERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


':  ■  '1 


menccmcnt  Hay,  as  the  place  best  fulfilling  all  these  con- 
ditions. There  were  a  saw-mill  and  a  few  houses  called  b) 
the  name,  with  a  background  of  primitive  forest,  faciti;j; 
upon  a  beautiful  broad  bay,  on  which  the  gleaming  summit 
of  magnificent  Mount  Rainier  looked  down  like  a  pyramid 
of  ivory  from  the  blue  heavens.  A  final  decision  on 
the  terminus  question  was  reserved  until  the  committee 
returned  to  New  York.  Then  the  board  narrowed  down 
the  choice  of  a  terminus  to  Mukiltco,  Seattle  and  Tacoma, 
and  sent  a  commission  out  to  carefully  examine  and  report 
on  the  three  points.  The  commissioners  were  R.  D.  Rice, 
then  the  vice-president  of  the  Company  for  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  who  shortly  afterwards  was 
made  managing  director  for  the  Pacific  coast,  with  the 
functions  then  exercised  by  Judge  Rice.  They  reported 
in  July,  by  telegraph,  in  favor  of  Tacoma,  where  they 
had  acquired,  by  purchase  and  donation,  a  large  body  of 
land,  and  had  bargained  for  the  purchase  of  the  saw-mill. 
Their  decision  was  confirmed  by  the  executive  commit- 
tee, and  they  were  directed  to  secure  the  property  se- 
lected. On  the  loth  of  September,  the  Board  of  Directors 
finally  adopted  Tacoma  as  the  western  terminus  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  A  company  was  formed  with 
a  nominal  capital  of  $2,000,000,  in  which  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company  was  given  one  share  more  than  one-half 
the  s*-ock,  to  lay  out  the  new  city  and  sell  its  lots  and 
wharf  privileges.  Subsequently  the  capital  of  the  Tacoma 
Land  Company  was  reduced  to  $1,000,000,  and  the  stock 
not  owned  by  the  railroad  company  was  sold  at  about 
fifty  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Let  us  go  back  now  to  the  committee  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  They  traveled  over  ordinary  roads  to  the  Colum- 
bia River  after  their  cruise  on  the  Sound,  went  up  the 
Columbia  to  the  mouth  cf  Snake  River,  and,  returning  to 
Portland,  hastened   back   to    New  York.     The  tour,  to- 


PRESIDENCY  OF  GENERAL   CASS. 


195 


gcthcr  witli  a  trip  ho  had  made  out  to  the  Red  River 
Valley,  convinced  General  Cass  that  tiie  Northern  Pacific 
enterprise  was  more  promisin<j  than  he  had  supposed  ;  and 
when  he  entered  on  the  actual  duties  of  the  presidency  in 
December,  1872,  he  made  an  enthusiastic  address  to  the 
board,  in  which  he  said  :  "  The  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road can  be  constructed  at  a  reasonable  cost ;  it  can  be 
operated  and  maintained  at  a  less  ':ost  than  any  other 
railroad  ad-oss  the  continent  north  of  the  parallel  of  33 
degrees  for  obvious  and  well-known  reasons,  and  it  will 
have,  when  constructed,  and  at  once,  a  larger  local  traffic 
than  any  other  road  can  have,  west  of  the  looth  meridian 
of  longitude.  *  '^  '■''  *  There  is  no  problem  to  solve  as 
to  the  success  of  the  road  after  it  shall  have  been  com- 
pleted. The  only  question  after  that  event  will  be  how 
any  intelligent  man  of  this  age  should  ever  have  had  any 
doubt  about  it." 

General  Cass  afterwards  gave  striking  proof  of  his  faith 
in  the  Northern  Pacific  road  and  country,  by  converting  a 
large  amount  of  the  bonds  of  the  Company  which  he  had 
purchased,  into  land  in  the  Red  River  Valley,  and  begin- 
ning farming  operations  there  on  a  large  scale  for  the 
raising  of  wheat.  The  valley  had  been  looked  upon  as 
worthless  for  agriculture.  It  was  popularly  supposed 
to  be  all  subject  to  overflow  as  far  back,  at  least,  as  the 
Maple  River,  and  to  be  covered  with  ice  and  water  until 
late  in  the  spring.  The  half-breeds  and  Canadian  traders, 
who  were  acquainted  with  the  region,  so  impressed  this 
opinion  upon  the  railroad  ^..gineers,  that  the  first  sur- 
veyed line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  was  run  far  northward  to 
Devil's  Lake,  to  avoid  the  supposed  swamps  between  the 
Red  River  and  the  Sheyennc,  instead  of  going  straight 
west  to  the  Missouri.  Even  later,  after  a  sensible 
chief  engineer  had  leave  to  run  the  straight  line,  and 
the  Company  had  adopted  it,  construction  was  long  de- 


•I 


196 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


laycd  beyond  P^argo  by  a  division  engineer  insisting  on 
putting  in  seven  miles  of  trestle.  General  Cass  bought  a 
large  tract  of  land  seventeen  miles  west  of  Fargo.  He 
was  the  first  purchaser  with  a  view  to  cultivating  wheat 
in  that  region.  Mr.  Cheney,  of  Boston,  one  of  the  di- 
rectors of  the  Northern  Pac'nc  Company,  bought  lands 
adjoining.  Jointly  they  engaged  the  services  of  Oliver 
Dalrymple,  the  most  noted  wheat  farmer  in  Minnesota, 
to  superintend  the  united  estate  which  became  known 
as  the  Cass-Cheney  farm.  The  experiment  was  very  suc- 
cessful, and  its  result  was  a  matter  of  great  importance  t(; 
the  No'-ther'.i  Pacific  Company;  for  as  soon  as  it  was  (Ic- 
monsfated  tl:at  laige  crops  of  wheat  could  be  raised 
upon  tiic  level  lands  of  the  valley,  lying  ready  for  the 
plow,  settlers  poured  in,  towns  sprang  up,  and  the  region 
soon  furnished  a  hea\y  traffic  to  the  road. 

Of  the  general  measures  of  the  Cass  administration  of 
Northern  Pacific  affairs  not  much  need  be  said  here.  Tlic 
Company  was  already  in  financial  straits  when  \\z  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  the  presidency.  The  sale  of  its 
bonds  had  almost  ceased.  Jay  Cooke  would  sell  loo.ocxj, 
and  quietly  buy  back  90,0(X)  to  keep  up  the  market. 
More  than  once  the  directors  were  compelled  to  put  their 
hands  in  their  pockets  and  loan  the  Company  considerable 
sums  to  rescue  it  from  embarrassment.  The  Company 
was  like  a  ship  in  a  gale  ;  its  president's  task  was  to  save 
it  from  wreck  if  he  could.  Retrenchment  and  economy 
were  the  rule  of  action.  The  Dakota  Division  was  com- 
pleted to  the  Missouri  River  with  the  funds  furnished  b\' 
Jay  Cooke  before  the  crash  of  1873,  and  the  Pacific 
Division  was  built  from  Kalama  to  Tacoma.  There 
was  no  money  to  pay  interest  after  the  sale  of  boinls 
ceased,  and  the  bondholders  were  obliged  to  take  a  new- 
form  of  obligation  convertible  into  lands.  It  was  I  lob- 
son's  choice  with  them — that  or  nothing. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  GENERAL   CASS. 


19; 


Of  the  bankruptcy  proceedings,  and  the  reorganization, 
\vc  shall  speak  in  the  following  chapters.  President  Cass 
resigned  in  April,  1875,  to  take  the  receivership  of  the 
Company,  and,  after  the  reorganization  in  August  follow- 
ing, he  went  to  Europe  for  rest.  He  first  disposed  of  all 
his  interest  in  the  Northern  Pacific,  acting  on  a  princ'nle 
which  had  always  governed  his  business  conduct,  never 
to  put  money  or  leave  money  in  any  enterprise  where  he 
was  not  on  the  inside  of  the  management. 


CHAPIER   XXV. 


Tin-:    TAMC   f)F    1873. 

An  Unexpected  Disaster — Suspension  of  the  House  of  Jay  Cooke  cS:  Co.— 
'I'lie  Panic  and  its  Results — Ciosins;  of  the  Stock  I^xcliangc — Suspension 
of  li.inks,  Railroads,  and  Manufacturing;  Companies — Numerous  Fail- 
ures in  all  I'arts  of  the  Country — I'rolonjjed  Effects  of  the  I'anic — Seri- 
ous Shrinkage  in  \'alucs — Many  Ilranchcs  of  Industry  I'aralyzed — 'I'lic 
Norlhern  I'acific  Railroad  not  the  Cause  of  the  Failure  of  Jay  Cooke  iV 
Co.  —  Mr.  Cooke  Loses  One  Fortune  and  Makes  Another. 

Tin;  financial  panic  of  1S73  destroyed  the  bankin;^ 
house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  and  severely  crippled  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Compan)'.  It  was  the  mosi 
serious  disaster  to  the  business  and  industry  of  the 
United  States  that  had  occurred  since  the  crisis  of  1837. 
Sagacious  men  foresaw  its  coming,  but  it  burst  ;;■  .\  the 
general  public  like  a  sudden  and  terrific  thunder-:.!  (;i;:i  on 
a  bright  summer  da}-.  The  general  prosperity  of  the 
countrj'  was  undiminished  during  the  first  three-cpiarters 
of  the  year  1S73.  The  revenues  of  the  Government 
were  large,  and  the  public  debt  was  rapidh'  reduced  ; 
manufactories  were  running  at  their  full  capacit}-  ;  lail- 
road  building  was  prosecuted  on  an  extensive  scale  in  all 
[)arts  of  the  countr\',  and  trade  was  brisk  and  buoyant. 
All  at  once,  with  no  other  warning  than  a  little  strin- 
genc)'  in  the  moriey  market,  an  extraordinary  [lanic  began 
in  New  York.  It  commenced  on  the  i8th  of  Se[)tembrr, 
with  the  fiilure  of  the  New  York  house  of  Jaj'  Cooke  iK: 
Co.,    followed    immediately    by    the    suspension    of  tlu' 


V 


liladelphi.i   house 


and  of  the    I'irst   National   Bank 


d 


Washington.      It  lasted  about  a  month,  aiid  in  that  short 
space  of  less  than  thirty  days  it  prostrated  thousands  of 


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THE  PAXIC  OF  1873. 


199 


commercial  establishments,  stopped  the  wages  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  laborers,  and  spread  gloom  and 
terror  over  the  entire  land.  It  overthrew  the  Stock  Ex- 
change and  numerous  banking  houses,  trust  companies, 
railroad  companies,  and  manufacturing  firms.  In  one 
dav  it  broke  off  negotiations  of  American  securities  in 
the  money  market  of  Euroi)e,  and  suspended  the  con- 
struction of  all  public  works  dependent  on  such  sales.  It 
s\vei)t  down  the  entire  banking  system  of  the  country,  and 
paralyzed  credit.  Even  the  saving  banks  were  obliged 
to  close  their  tloors.  The  reduction  of  the  public  debt, 
which  had  been  going  on  at  the  rate  of  one  million  per 
(lay,  ceased  abruptly  ;  the  balance  turned  against  the 
Treasury,  and  in  a  single  month  eighteen  millions  were 
added  to  the  debt. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  panic  the  rush  to  the  Stock 
Exchange  was  so  great  that  it  was  feared  the  galleries 
would  give  way  under  the  weight  of  the  multitude.  The 
wildest  excitement  prevailed  in  Wall  street.  The  panic  was 
increased  next  day  by  the  failure  of  the  important  banking 
firm  of  Fisk&  Match,  long  identified  with  the  negotiation 
of  Government  securities,  and,  on  the  day  following,  by 
the  susi)ension  of  the  Union  Trust  Company,  caused  by 
the  failure  of  the  Lake  Sliorc  Railroad  Company  to  pa\'  a 
call  loan  of  $1,750,000.  Thirty  houses  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  failed  on  the  19th.  On  Monday,  the  2 1st, 
there  were  eleven  more  important  failures,  including 
three  banks.  I^'ailures  were  also  numerous  in  Western 
cities.  On  the  20th  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  was 
closed  l)y  oriler  of  its  president,  and  remained  closed  for 
ten  days.  The  Gold  Exchange  also  shut  its  doors.  The 
fever  of  speculation,  on  a  market  which  seemed  to  have 
no  bottom,  was  checked  by  the  closing  of  its  usual  ch.m- 
iicls  of  activit)'.  To  relieve  the  market  the  Clearing 
House   issued   §10,000,000  of  loan   certificates,  and   the 


200 


XORTHERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Government  made  $io,cxx),ooo  more  in  greenbacks  avail- 
able in  New  York  by  an  offer  to  buy  bonds  to  that 
amount.  In  three  davs  over  nine  millions  of  bonds  were 
sold.  A  pressure  was  brouj^ht  to  bear  on  President 
Grant  to  induce  liim  to  loan  to  the  banks  the  reserves  of 
currency  in  the  Treasury.  Commodore  Vanderbilt  pro- 
posed to  the  President  to  lend  the  banks  $io,OOO.CXX)  if 
the  Government  would  lend  them  $25,000,000.  He  was 
asked  in  reply  why  lie  did  n<.'t  pay  the  call  loan  due  the 
Union  Trust  Company  by  one  of  his  railroads  and  allow 
it  to  resume,  and  this  answer  he  accepted  as  a  declination 
of  his  offer.  l*"ailures  were  numerous  during  the  second 
week  of  the  panic,  among  llie  fallen  houses  being  that  of 
Henry  Clews  &  Co.,  financial  agents  of  the  Government. 
All  stocks  and  securities  shrunk  largely  in  marketable 
price,  and  holders  found  a  considerable  part  of  the  sup- 
posed value  of  their  property  wiped  out  as  with  a  sponge. 
Although  the  immediate  disasters  of  th.e  panic  endured 
onI\'  for  about  a  month,  the  effects  continued  for  sever;il 
years.  Money  was  scarce,  although  the  volume  of  the  cur- 
rency was  much  larger  than  it  iias  since  been  in  prosper- 
ous times.  1  Kindreds  of  manufactories  stopped  operations 
for  the  want  of  a  market  for  their  goods.  Values  of  all 
kinds  of  propert)'  underwent  a  heavy  .shrinkage.  The 
growth  of  cities  was  checked.  Railroad  building  was  al- 
most wholly  suspended,  an<l  this  suspension,  together 
with  the  stagnation  of  the  building  trades,  parahv.ed  the 
iron  industry  in  all  its  branches.  Farmers  hesitated  to 
take  the  lower  prices  for  their  produce,  and  held  on  tn 
their  crops,  thus  cutting  down  the  revenues  of  the  trans- 
portation lines.  Thousands  wf  mechanics,  operatives, 
and  laborers  were  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  ih^- 
tressed  to  obtain  the  means  of  life.  Recovery  from  t la- 
panic  was  very  slow  and  tedious.  The  efforts  of  the 
country  to  get  back  to  its  former  position  of  prosperity 


THE  PANIC  OF  1873. 


201 


resembled  the  painful  struggles  of  a  man  who  has  fallen 
over  a  precipice,  and  who,  bruised  and  frightened,  toils 
wearily  up  the  steep. 

Let  us  turn  now  from  this  brief  glimpse  of  the  panic 
and  its  consequences  to  see  what  happened  to  the  house 
of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.;  to  which  the  fortunes  of  the  Northern 
Pacific   Railroad  Company  were  so  closely  liiiked.     The 
Northern   Pacific  Railroad  owed  the  firm  about  a  million 
and  a  half  for  advances  made  to  carry  on  the  work  o^ 
construction.     These  advances  the  firm  had  expected  to 
get  back   from  the  sales  of  the  bonds,  but   long  before 
the  crisis  the  sales  had   proceeded  very  slowly;   indeed, 
they  slackened  to  such  an  extent  in  1872,  that  the  direc- 
tors of  the  Company,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter, 
were  obliged  to  furnish  a  large  sum  borrowed  on  their  per- 
sonal credit  to  meet  its  pressing  necessities.    It  was  popu- 
larly supposed  at  the  time  that  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road had  wrecked  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  bank,  and  the  gen- 
eral tenor  of  newspaper  writing   was    in    this   direction. 
Some  of  the  friends  of  the  railroad  insisted  that  it  had 
been  wrecked  by  the  wild  financiering  of  the  bank.     The 
hasty  judgment    of  the  time,  unjust  as  such  judgment 
usually  is,  held  that  the  railroad  had  overturned  the  bank, 
and  that  the  fall  of  the  bank  had  brought  on  the  panic. 
The   truth    was,  that    no  one   cause  produced   the   great 
slirinkage  and  crash  of    1873,  nor  did  any  one  financial 
operation  break  down  the  house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.     It 
could  have  stood  up  under  its  heavy  loans  to  the  North- 
ern Pacific  if  it  had  not  recklessly  thrown  its  money  and 
crcilit  out   in  many  other  directions.     When  the  pressure 
came  upon  it,  it  found   itself  loaded  down   with  a  varied 
mass  of  pajjcr  assets,  upon  which  little  or  nothing  could 
be  realized  in  a  time  of  trouble. 

As  to  the  railroad  Comp.my  it  probably  could  not  have 
withstood  the  storm  of  1 873,  even  if  its  fiscal  agents  had 
I3» 


202 


NORTIIJLR.\'  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


held  up  under  the  fury  of  the  general  disaster.  Like 
many  other  railway  enterprises  trusting  to  the  future  de- 
velopment of  the  country  tributary  to  them  for  their  net 
earnings,  it  must  have  gone  into  temporary  insolvency. 
Many  similar  undertakings  were  abandoned  during  the  long 
period  of  doubt  and  disaster  which  followed  the  panic  ; 
many  were  suspended,  many  went  into  bankruptcy  and 
remained  for  years  in  the  hands  of  receivers.  There  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  Northern  Pacific  could  have  es- 
caped a  fate  which  so  generally  befell  other  companies  then 
endeavoring  to  construct  railroads  in  the  newer  portions 
of  the  country.  Its  declared  insolvency  was  delayed  a  few 
months  after  the  panic  by  the  leniency  of  its  creditors, 
but  was  inevitable.  The  legal  processes  which  brought  it 
about  were  commenced  and  carried  through,  as  we  shall 
see  in  the  following  chapter,  by  its  friends  and  directors, 
and  resulted  in  the  end  in  saving  it  from  ruin  and  placing 
it  upon  a  secure  basis. 

The  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  made  about  three  millions 
of  dollars  out  of  its  agency  for  the  first  Northern  Pacific 
loan.  Before  the  financial  crash  of  1873,  Mr.  Cooke  re- 
garded himself  as  one  of  the  richest  men  of  the  country. 
He  built  in  the  beautiful  suburbs  of  Philadelphia  a  palace 
which,  for  size  and  costliness,  had  scarcely  an  equal  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  this  palace,  called  "  Ogontz,"  he 
dispensed  a  lavish  hospitality.  He  had  also  a  summer 
residence  named  "  Gibraltar,"  on  a  rocky  cape  at  the  en- 
trance to  Sandusky  Bay  on  Lake  Erie,  which,  for  the 
larger  part  of  the  year,  he  placed  at  the  disposal  of  num- 
bers of  clergymen  who  recuperated  their  health  by  boating 
and  fishing,  and  breathing  the  pure  air  of  the  lake.  Mr. 
Cooke  was  a  generous  patron  of  churches  and  charities, 
and  had  a  strong  religious  bent  to  his  nature.  After  the 
crash  came  he  lived  for  a  long  time  in  retirement  in  a  lit- 
tle cottage,  in  the  country,  near  Philadelphia— to  all  ap- 


THE  PAXIC  OF  1873. 


203 


long 


pcaranccs  a  broken  man.  But  after  getting  through  the 
bankruptcy  courts,  he  reappeared  iu  business  circles  in 
I'hihidelphia,  occupied  hisold  office  on  South  Third  Street, 
and  began  to  build  up  a  second  fortune.  Stock  tratisac- 
tions  and  the  successful  sale  of  a  silver-mine  to  English 
capitalists  gave  him  a  large  sum  of  money  which  he  so 
increased  by  other  ventures  that  he  is  now  currently  re- 
ported to  be  worth  two  millions.  Mis  career  offers  the 
rare  instance  of  a  man  losing  one  fortune  and  making 
another  when  past  the  meridian  of  life. 


Mr. 

ities, 
the 
lit- 

1  ap- 


CIIAPTKR  XXVI. 

REOKtiAMZATIoN    OV    TIIK    NORTIIEKN    rACIlIC   COM- 
PANY. 


A  rciinil  of  Doubt  and  DespoiKk-ncy  in  llic  Affairs  of  the  Company — 
Milca_i;o  Completed  at  tlic  Time  of  the  I'anif — A  Road  'l'lirouj,li  Xac.iiu 
Spaces — l-'allinj;  off  of  Western  Immigration — The  Conijiany  in  I)r-- 
jicrale  Straits — Its  Kescue  by  a  Saj^acious  I'laii  of   Keori^anization — '1'Ik' 


I'londs  Coiivirled  into  Preferred   Slocis — Piai 


niptty 


roceeduiiis 


lin 


1! 


l)y    the    Directors — Jiidi;c    Shipman's   Valuable   Assistance — The    Road 
and  I'raiichise  Sold  to  a  Purchasinj^  Committee  of  the  liondliolders. 

After  the  failure  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  there  came  ;i 
long  period  of  doubt  and  distrust,  of  inactivity  and  prac- 
tical insolvency  in  the  affairs  of  the  Northern  Pacific. 
The  sale  of  bonds  had  entirely  ceased.  The  days  of  con- 
fidence and  enthusiasm,  when  rapid  building  was  going 
on,  and  money  lor  the  enterprise  was  abundant,  seenicil 
gone  forever.  J"'unds  in  small  amounts  for  the  immedi- 
ate necessities  of  the  Com[)any  could  only  be  borrowed 
by  pledging  two  or  even  three  dollars  of  bonds  for  one  of 
cash.  Many  of  the  friends  of  the  enterprise  turned 
against  it  in  its  adversity.  The  newspapers  ridiculed  it, 
and  said  it  was  "  a  wild  scheme  to  build  a  railroad  from 
Nowhere,  through  No-Man's-Land  to  N«)  Place."  Jay 
Cooke  was  denounced  for  his  connection  with  the  sale  of 
the  bonds — in  some  quarters  as  a  hot-headed  visionary, 
in  others  as  a  cold-blooded  schemer.  There  was  nothing 
to  do  now  but  to  shorten  sail,  and  wait  for  the  storm  to 
blow  over.  The  operating  force  on  the  road  was  largely 
reduced  ;  all  salaries  were  cut  down  ;  there  was  a  gener.il 
abandonment  of  leases  and  stock  in  other  companies,  and 
everything  was  subordinated  to  the  effort  to  hold  on  to 
the  main  line  of  road. 


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REORGAXIZATIOiV  OF   THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC  CO.  20$ 

The  road  had  been  built  westward  from  Lake  Superior 
to  the  Missouri  River,  a  distance  of  about  450  miles.  It 
ran  first  through  a  forest,  and  then  over  vast  plains  rich 
in  natural  fertility,  but  destitute  of  population  to  afford 
traffic.  The  little  towns  that  had  sprung  up  during  its 
construction  were  largely  speculative  in  their  cliaracter, 
and  had  no  developed  country  to  sustain  them.  There 
had  not  been  time  enough  for  the  railroad  company  to 
educate  the  public  as  to  the  merits  of  the  region  it 
traversed,  and  thus  secure  a  large  movement  of  settlers  to 
it.  Besides,  the  financial  crash  of  1873  checked  Western 
Emigration  as  well  as  railway  building.  The  expansive 
forces  of  the  nation  seemed  paralyzed.  Emigration  from 
Europe  almost  ceased,  and  that  far  more  important  factor 
in  Western  colonization,  the  native  American  element, 
hesitated  to  seek  new  fields  for  its  restless  energies.  The 
railroad  practically  ended  nowhere.  There  was  little 
traffic  at  its  terminus  at  Bismarck,  and  little  to  bo  had  at 
anvof  the  new  towns  it  had  created  in  Minnesota  and  Da- 
kota.  Running  expenses  could  with  difficulty  be  earned. 
On  the  Pacific  coast  the  Puget  Sound  Division,  extend- 
ing from  Kalama  on  the  Columbia  River  to  New  Tacoma, 
a  raw  town  in  the  woods  on  the  shore  of  the  Sound,  had 
just  been  completed,  and  was  with  difficulty  made  to  pay 
operating  expenses  ;  a  single  mixed  train  of  freight  and 
passenger  cars  serving  for  its  daily  business.  The  river, 
sea  and  Sound  transportation  lines  controlled  by  the  Com- 
pany through  its  ownership  of  stock  in  the  Oregon  Steam 
Navigation  Company  were  abandoned,  and  the  stock, 
first  pledged  for  loans,  was  sold  in  default  of  payment. 

All  this  time  a  high  rate  of  interest  {y^^  per  cent.)  was 
running  on  the  bonds,  and  causing  the  Company's  debt 
to  grow  at  the  rate  of  over  two  millions  a  year.  Interest 
was  funded  in  principal  semi-annually.  Matters  bright- 
ened a  little  in  1874 out  on  the  line  of  the  road.     The  ex- 


206 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


periments  of  Mr.  Cheney,  Mr.  Cass  and  others  in  raising 
wheat  by  farming  on  a  large  scale  proved  successful,  and 
settlers  began  to  go  into  the  Red  River  Valley.  The 
Company  was  able  to  earn  a  little  money  by  hauling  lum- 
ber to  them  from  the  pineries  of  Minnesota,  and  taking 
their  grain  for  shipment  at  the  lake  port  of  Duluth. 
Still  there  was  no  surplus  over  running  expenses,  and  no 
prospect  of  meeting  the  just  demands  of  the  bondholders, 
who,  though  patient  and  forbearing,  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  long  rest  contented  under  what  looked  like  an 
annihilation  of  their  capital.  The  Company  seemed 
about  to  plunge  into  the  mire  of  hopeless  insolvency.  The 
great  enterprise  of  a  natural  highway  to  the  Pacific  by 
the  Northern  route,  marked  out  by  nature  for  the  pur- 
pose, appeared  to  be  fast  nearing  a  disastrous  end. 

From  this  desperate  strait  the  Company  was  rescued  by 
a  financial  scheme  of  great  sagacity  and  soundness,  for 
which  credit  was  due  chiefly  to  Frederick  Billings,  then 
and  now  a  director,  and  for  c.  time  the  President  of  the 
Company.  He  conceived  what  was  known  as  the  "  Plan 
of  Reorganization,"  and  urged  it  vigorously  and  persist- 
ently upon  all  persons  interested  in  the  road  whom  he 
could  reach.  What  that  plan  was,  and  how  it  was  carried 
into  effect,  can  be  well  told  in  the  language  used  by  Mr. 
Billings  in  subsequently  explaining  it  to  a  committee  of 
Congress : 

"  When  the  crash  came  there  were  three  parties  in  interest :  those  who 
had  bought  the  bonds,  the  holders  of  the  stock,  and  the  owners  of  what  is 
called  the  '  proprietary  interest.'  The  bondholders  were  scattered  from 
Maine  to  Texas,  and  at  that  time  numbered  about  11,000.  This  large 
amount  of  bonds  w.is  outstanding,  and  there  was  a  considerable  floating  debt, 
and  the  road  was  but  litle  more  than  paying  its  expenses.  The  enterprise 
had  reaciied  no  objective  point  ,  it  was  necessary  to  carry  it  further  to  make 
what  had  been  invested  in  it  valuable.  l)ut  in  its  then  condition  no  addi- 
tional funds  could  be  raised,  and  so,  early  in  the  spring  of  1875,  it  was  thought 
best  to  foreclose  the  mortgage,  to  rid  the  road  of  its  debt,  and  to  place  it  in 
condition    for   further  development.     All   parties  in  interest  were  brought 


I^EORGAiVIZATIOA'  Of   THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC  CO. 


207 


together,  and  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  prolonged  litigation,  all  inter- 
ests were  harmonized,  and  in  a  few  months  the  property  was  sold  under  a 
plan  of  reorganization  which  was  made  part  of  the  decree  of  foreclosure,  and 
thus  speedily  taken  out  ofcourt. 

"  The  agreement  which  harmonized  all  ])arties  was  this :  the  capital  stock, 
which  by  the  charter  was  authorized  to  be  $100,000,000,  was  divided  into 
$5 1 ,000,000  of  preferred  stock  and  $49,000,000  of  common  stock.  The  bond- 
holders were  to  have  $30,000,000  of  preferred  stock  for  the-r  $30,000,000  of 
bonds,  and  as  their  bonds  drew  7,''„  per  cent,  in  gold,  the  interest  was  called 
8  per  cent,  currency  ;  two  years'  interest  had  already  accrued,  and  it  was  de- 
cided to  give  to  the  preferred  stockholders  the  two  years'  interest  that  had 
accrued  and  3  years'  in  advance — 5  years  of  interest  at  S  per  cent.,  making 
40  per  cent.,  so  that  each  holder  of  a  bond  of  $1,000  received  $1,400  of  pre- 
ferred stock.  This  absorbed,  say,  $42,ooo,(X)0  of  the  jireferred  stock,  and 
the  remaining  $9,000,000  was  to  be  in  the  treasury  for  the  general  purposes 
of  the  company.  The  stockholders  were  to  receive  common  stock,  share  for 
share,  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  vote  for  several  years,  and  were  never  to 
have  dividends  until,  in  each  year,  the  preferred  stock  had  received  8  per 
cent.,  and  the  remainder  of  the  capital  stock,  after  deducting  the  $51,000,000 
of  preferred  and  the  common  stock,  issued  to  tho  stockholders,  was  to  be  dis- 
tributed to  the  owners  of  the  proprietary  interest." 


When  the  plan  of  reorganization  was  suggested  it 
was  opposed  in  a  great  many  quarters  on  the  ground  that 
a  foreclosure  of  the  mortgage  would  carry  with  it  the  con- 
structed road,  the  lands  earned,  and  any  personal  property 
the  Company  might  have,  but  not  the  right  to  go  on  un- 
der the  charter  with  all  the  Company's  rights  unimpaired  ; 
that  additional  legislation  and  a  new  grant  by  Congress, 
which  then  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  obtain,  would 
be  absolutely  necessary.  Mr.  Billings,  who  proposed  and 
inaugurated  the  scheme  of  reorganization,  and  Col. 
George  Gray,  who  after  the  legal  proceedings  w  jre  com- 
menced became,  and  has  ever  since  been,  the  general 
counsel  of  the  Company,  insisted  that  Congress  having 
authorized  the  Company  to  make  a  mortgage  covering 
everything,  including  its  franchise  to  be  a  corporation, 
there  was  no  doubt  that  the  purchasers  under  the  fore- 
closure would  be  just  the  same  Northern  Pacific  Company, 


208 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


SO  far  as  all  rights  under  the  charter  were  concerned,  as 
the  organization  before  the  foreclosure ;  that  the  right  to 
be,  the  entity,  the  spiritual  life,  would  go  with  the  sale  just 
as  certainly  as  the  material  property  ;  that,  in  fact,  the  fore- 
closure sale  and  purchase  simply  sloughed  off  the  mort- 
gage ;  that  if  the  purchase  could  be  made  for  the  parties 
in  interest,  the  bondholders,  stockholders,  and  propric- 
tary-interest  holders,  on  some  agreed  relations,  the  bond- 
holders taking  preferred  stock  for  their  bonds,  everything 
would  be  saved  to  those  to  whom  it  belonged — the  Com- 
pany would  be  rid  of  all  incumbrance  and  be  ready  to 
raise  more  money  on  a  good  security  at  the  first  dawn  of 
goocT  times,  and  go  on  with  the  road  to  completion — and 
everybody  who  would  be  patient  would  get  his  money 
back  with  interest,  and  more  too.  The  case  was  a  some 
what  novel  one,  and  Mr.  Billings'  proposal  was  assented 
to,  but  not  altogether  believed.  Those  who  believed  and 
those  who  doubted  saw  that  unless  the  Company  could 
be  cleared  of  its  debt  of  $33,000,000  it  could  not  raise 
more  money  and  go  on,  and  unless  it  did  go  on,  it  was 
sunk  in  hopeless  bankruptcy.  The  legal  question  involved 
has  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  question.  The  courts,  and 
the  Government  in  its  executive  and  legislative  depart- 
ments, have  recognized  the  Company  under  the  reorgan- 
ization as  having  all  the  rights  of  the  original  corporation. 
A  meeting  of  the  bondholders  was  held  on  the  i8th  of 
March,  1873,  and  a  committee  appointed  to  harmonize  all 
interests.  The  bankruptcy  proceedings  were  commenced 
on  the  i6th  day  of  April,  1875,  in  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court  in  New  York,  and  General  George  W.  Cass,  who  was 
then  President  of  the  Company,  was  appointed  receiver. 
It  happened  when  the  papers  were  filed,  and  the  appli- 
cation for  a  receiver  was  made,  that  Judge  Nathaniel 
Shipman,  of  Connecticut,  was  sitting  in  place  of  Judge 
Blatchford,  and  so  by  accident  the  case  came  before  him, 


REORGANIZATION  OF   THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC  CO.  209 


and  he  liad  charge  of  it  until  its  final  disposition.  The 
friends  of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise  have  always 
felt  grateful  to  Judge  Shipman  for  his  thorough  ap- 
preciation of  the  situation  and  prompt  disposition  of  the 
case.  Lawyers  seeking  to  intervene  for  various  bondhold- 
ers were  told  that  their  interests  were  all  guarded  and  pro- 
tected by  the  trustees ;  and  when  efforts  for  delay  were 
made,  he  said  from  the  bench  to  the  lawyers  :  "  I  can 
only  say  that  if  you  are  anxious  and  determined  to  come 
in  as  parties  in  the  case,  it  will  make  no  difference  with  its 
disposition.  I  clearly  see  that  the  salvation  of  this  prop- 
erty, and  any  return  to  those  who  have  put  their  money 
in  it,  depend  upon  a  prompt  foreclosure  of  this  mortgage 
and  a  reorganization  by  all  the  parties  interested,  and  I 
am  determined,  gentlemen,  that  there  shall  be  no  delay  in 
the  proceedings  here,  and  no  waste  of  this  property.  We 
will  now  take  a  recess,  but  I  may  inform  you  that  the 
decree  of  foreclosure  will  be  signed  this  afternoon." 
The  decree  was  accordingly  signed,  and  the  sale  under 
it  within  the  shortest  time  allowed  by  law  was  adver- 
tised, but  postponed  for  an  amendment  to  the  decree, 
which  was  given  by  the  judge. 

Then  the  plan  of  foreclosure  and  reorganization  was 
carried  out  by  a  purchasing  committee  appointed  by  the 
bondholders  at  a  meeting  held  on  June  30th,  the  committee 
being  composed  of  Messrs.  Johnston  Livingston,  Freder- 
ick Billings,  George  Stark,  James  K.  Moorhead,  John  N. 
Hutchinson,  and  Jolin  M.  Denison.  On  the  12th  of 
August,  all  the  property  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  except  the  patented  and  certified  lands,  to- 
gether with  all  its  rights,  liberties  and  franchises,  in- 
cluding the  right  to  be  a  corporation,  was  sold  under  the 
decree  of  the  court,  and  purchased  for  the  bondholders 
by  the  committee.  Thus  the  bondholders,  represented 
by  the  purchasing  committee,  became  the  body  politic 
14 


210 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


and  corporate  known  as   the   Northern    Pacific    Railroad 
Company. 

By  the  end  of  September,  powers  of  attorney  represent- 
ing twenty-six  millions,  or  more  thr.n  five-sixths  of  the 
bonds,  were  received  by  the  committee  and  converted 
into  preferred  stock;  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
whole  debt  was  wiped  out  by  this  simple  and  equitable 
method.  Thus  all  interests  were  fairly  dealt  with,  and 
the  Company,  as  reorganized,  found  itself  in  possession 
of  about  575  miles  of  road,  free  from  incumbrance,  with 
an  attaching  domain  of  ten  millions  acres  of  land,  and 
the  right  to  earn  thirty  millions  more  by  the  completion 
of  the  road.  The  proceedings  in  bankruptcy  were  carried 
forward  so  expeditiously  and  with  such  sagacity  and  har- 
mony, that  the  horde  of  wreckers  and  plunderers  who 
hang  about  the  courts  to  pounce  upon  fallen  corpora- 
tions, armed  with  petty  claims  and  demands  for  legal 
services,  were  baffled.  The  cost  of  these  proceedings  was 
trifling.  The  Company  was  now  upon  its  feet  again,  a;;d 
in  a  position  slowly  to  regain  public  confidence. 


lailroad 

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CHAPTER    XXVII. 

CIIAKI.KS  r..  wriciit's  ad.mimstratiox, 

Cliaile^  P..  Wiiylit  llkclcil  I'lcsideiU  in  1074 — His  Early  Career  in  Ihisincss 
and  Railroad  ManaLjcnient — Cl1o^ell  a  Uirccloruf  the  Northern  raeific 
in  1S70 — Chairman  of  llie  Finanee  Cominiltee  in  1S72,  and  \'ice-rresi- 
deiit  in  1S73 — Financial  Straits  of  tiio  Company  afier  the  Rcorijani/a- 
tion — MaUintj  the  Road  Pay  I-xpenses — Construction  Work  Rcconi- 
mcnced  m  1S75,  on  llie  Pacific  Coast — A  Connection  with  St.  Paul 
Secured — Renewed  Activity  in  the  Company's  Affairs — The  Miss(niri 
Division  Loan — Construction  P>e;^un  West  of  the  Missouri  River  in  1579 
— Mr.  Wright's  Resignation — Complimentary  Resolutions, 

When  General  Cass  resigned  the  presidency  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  1874,  to  act  as  its 
receiver  in  bankruptcy,  Ciiarles  li.  Wright,  of  Philadel- 
phia, was  elected  in  his  place.  Mr,  Wright  was  of  Quaker 
ancestry,  and  born  at  Wysox,  at  the  head  of  the  Wyo- 
ming Valley,  in  Pennsylvania.  In  early  life  he  was  a  mer- 
chant and  banker  in  Erie, Pennsylvania.  Afterwards  he  was 
actively  concerned  in  the  building  and  management  of  the 
Philadelphia  and  Erie  Railroad;  and  later,  he  was  general 
manager  of  the  united  railway  companies  in  the  oil  regions, 
in  the  flush  times  of  the  oil  excitement,  before  the  days  of 
pipe  lines,  and  when  the  roads  made  a  great  deal  of  money 
by  hauling  oil  in  barrels  and  in  rude  wooden  tanks.  In 
these  and  other  enterprises,  Mr.  Wright  had  accumulated 
an  ample  fortune  before  he  entered  the  board  of  directors 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  in  1870,  as  a  representative  of  his 
own  and  other  large  Philadelphia  stock  interests.  As 
director  and  afterwards  as  Vice-President,  he  wielded 
considerable  influence  in  the  management  of  the  Com- 
pany's affairs  before  he  was  called  to  the  presidency.    The 


2i: 


AVJ?  TV/A A'.\    J'.l  Cll'IC  K.  I JLKOA  D. 


financial  management  of  the  corporation  was  to  a  large 
extent  in  his  hands.  Especially  was  this  the  case  when 
the  coming  financial  crisis  began  to  be  felt,  ami 
when,  with  the  falling  off  of  the  sale  of  bonds  i'.ic 
Company  began  to  be  pressed  for  money  to  take  care  of 
its  floating  debt  and  go  on  with  the  work  of  construc- 
tion. On  more  than  one  occasion,  by  drawing  on  his  in- 
dividual means  and  credit,  Mr.  Wright  rescued  the  Com- 
pany from  serious  embarrassment.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  coinmittee  of  the  Board  which,  in  1872,  went  to 
the  Pacific  coast  to  select  a  location  for  a  terminal  cit)- 
on  Puget  Sound,  and  concurred  in  the  decision  to  make 
Tacoma  the  terminal  point.  In  December,  1872,  he 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  finance  committee,  and 
in  March,  1873,  was  elected  Vice-President,  resident  in 
New  York. 

The  Company's  affairs  were  at  the  lowest  ebb  when  Mr. 
Wright  became  President.  Tiie  bankruptcy  proceed- 
ings began  at  that  time,  and  ended  in  the  following  August, 
leaving  the  road  wholly  without  credit  in  the  money  mar- 
kets of  the  country.  Its  bonded  debt  had  been  wiped 
out  by  the  conversion  of  its  bonds  into  preferred  stock, 
but  it  could  not  borrow  money  to  go  on  with  the  building 
of  the  road.  Worse  still,  there  was  a  floating  debt  of 
five  and  a  half  millions  hanging  over  it.  To  take  care  of 
this  debt  ;  to  persuade  creditors  not  to  sue  the  Company  at 
law  ;  to  make  the  most  out  of  such  assets  as  the  Company 
had,  and  at  the  same  time  to  manage  ^^"^  hundred  miles 
of  railroad,  running  through  what  was  then  little  better 
than  a  wilderness,  Avas  the  task  Mr.  Wright  undertook. 
He  was  well  fitted  for  it  by  character  and  experience. 
Prudent,  cautious,  and  economical,  lie  was  at  the  same 
time  active  and  enterprising,  and  always  hopeful  under  the 
most  discouraging  circumstances.  He  succeeded  by  a 
policy  of  rigid  economy  in  making  the  road  pay  expenses. 


CHARLES  B.    WRIGHT'S  ADMIXISTRATIOX, 


213 


The  track  ended  at  liismarck,  on  the  Missouri  River  ; 
but  for  two  winters  trains  ran  only  to  Fargo,  and  during 
the  third  winter  the  terminus  was  at  Jamestown,  The  short 
link  of  105  miles  on  the  Pacific  coast  was  finished  to  Pu- 
L;ct  Sound,  in  1S73,  witii  the  money  received  from  the  sale 
of  the  stock  of  the  Tacoma  Land  Company.  At  the  close 
of  1S76,  the  directors  had  the  satisfaction  of  finding  that 
the  road  had  not  only  paid  its  way,  but  had  netted  a  sur- 
plus of  $300,000.  In  1 877, the  ret  earnings  increased  a 
little  ;  in  1878,  they  ran  up  to  §^  'o,000. 

Thus  the  income  of  the  Company  grew  slowly  but 
steadily  from  year  to  year,  as  the  country  in  Northei  1 
Minnesota  and  Dakota  began  to  be  occupied  by  settlers. 
It  could  not  be  said  that  the  road  was  financially  success- 
ful at  this  time,  because  it  paid  no  interest  on  the  t'  '■  :y 
millions  invested  in  its  construction,  but  its  affairs  began 
to  assume  a  hop  .1 . '  phase.  There  was  no  doubt  no^ 
as  to  the  ^'alue  of  the  groat  north-western  praiiies 
drained  by  liie  Red  River  and  its  tributaries.  The  enor- 
mous farms  opened  by  Mr.  Cass  and  Mr.  Cheney,  and 
managed  by  Mr.  Dalrymplc,  had  demonstrated  that  wheat- 
raising  in  that  region  was  an  industry  which  could  be  de- 
pended upon  to  produce  regular  and  profitable  returns. 
Those  so-called  Bonanza  farms  advertised  the  country  and 
attracted  thousands  of  settlers.  So  did  the  smaller  farms 
for  stock-raising,  dairying  and  general  agriculture,  opened 
in  what  is  called  the  Lake  Park  region  in  Minnesota,  on 
the  line  of  the  Company's  road. 

After  the  failure  of  the  efforts  to  obtain  aid  from 
Congress,  described  in  the  following  chapter,  financial 
plans  for  the  further  building  of  the  road  began  to 
be  talked  over  in  the  board.  There  was,  however,  little 
confidence  that  the  public  would  look  favorably  upon 
any  securities  which  the  Company  might  put  upon  the 
market ;  and  when  the  project  of  a  new  loan   was  uis- 


214 


NORTHERN-  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


cussed  it  \yas  mainly  vith  a  view  to  what  the  directors 
themselves  and  their  friends  who  had  stood  by  the  enter- 
prise from  the  beginning  might  be  wilHng  to  subscribe. 
Two  circumstances  caused  the  first  construction  work 
after  the  bankruptcy  and  reorganization  to  be  done 
on  the  Pacific  coast.  Coal  was  discovered  in  1875, 
in  the  foot-hills  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  about 
thirty  miles  east  of  Tacoma,  and  on  the  line  which 
would  be  adopted  for  the  Cascade  Branch,  in  case 
Tacoma  should  be  its  terminus.  Benjamin  Fallows,  of 
Pittsburg,  a  mining  engineer,  was  sent  out  to  investigate 
these  coal-fields,  and  his  favorable  reports  led  to  the  belief 
that  a  profitable  business  could  be  developed  for  a  railroad 
running  to  them.  Accordingly  surveys  were  made  for  a 
road  in  the  fall  of  1875,  and  on  May  6th,  1876,  the  route 
was  formally  adopted  and  a  map  filed  in  the  Interior  De- 
partment in  accordance  with  the  law.  At  this  time  the 
people  of  Washington  Territory,  and  especially  of  Eastern 
Washington,  impatient  at  the  delay  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise,  began  to  cast  about  for 
other  means  to  secure  railroad  transportation  to  tide-water. 
Their  Delegate  to  Congress,  Mr.  Jacobs,  brought  forward 
a  plan  to  take  away  the  land  grant  of  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific Company  along  its  projected  Cascade  Branch,  and  give 
it  to  another  corporation  having  only  an  existence  on 
paper.  'Senator  Mitchell,  of  Oregon,  was  also  pushing  a 
bill  in  Congress  hostile  to  the  interests  of  the  Company  in 
relation  to  the  road  down  the  Columbia  River.  Matters 
looked  critical.  President  Wright  met  the  emergency 
by  ordering  work  to  be  begun  at  once  on  the  road  to  the 
Puyallup  coal  mines,  which  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  por- 
tion of  the  Cascade  Branch.  The  directors  at  first  de- 
cided to  attempt  to  place  a  loan,  but  afterward  recon- 
sidered   their   action,  an  1    determined  to  build  the  line 


without  a 


mortgage 


by 


usmg 


the    net 


earnings 


of  tht 


CHARLES  B.    WRIGHT'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


215 


Minnesota  and  Dakota  Divisions.  In  order  to  show 
that  the  Company  was  going  to  commence  construc- 
tion at  once,  Mr.  Wright  bought  a  cargo  of  railroad 
iron  on  his  own  credit,  and  shipped  it  to  Tacoma.  It 
took  the  ship  three  months  to  get  around  Cape  Horn, 
and  in  the  meantime  the  threatening  opposition  to  the 
road  in  Congress  and  on  the  Pacific  coast  was  disarmed. 
The  town  at  the  coal  mines  on  the  Puyallup  Branch 
was,  by  vote  of  the  board  of  directors,  named  Wilke- 
son,  in  compliment  to  the  Company's  secretary. 

In  1877,  the  question  of  a  direct  connection  with  St.  Paul 
began  to  assume  greater  importance  with  the  increasing 
freight  movement  on  the  Company's  main  line. .  Traffic 
between  St.  Paul  and  points  on  the  Northern  Pacific  had 
10  go  around  by  Thomson  Junction  over  the  Lake  Supe- 
rior and  Mississippi  River  Railroad,  a  route  forming  sub- 
stantially two  sides  of  a  right  angle  triangle,  the  base  of 
which  would  be  a  line  from  St.  Paul  to  Brainerd.  The 
St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company  had  already  con- 
structed a  line  from  St.  Paul  to  Sauk  Raoids,  about  half 
the  way  to  Brainerd,  in  which  the  Northern  Pacific  had  a 
controlling  stock  interest.  A  charter  was  in  existence  for 
a  company  to  build  from  Sauk  Rapids  to  Brainerd,  and  a 
few  miles  of  grading  had  been  done.  Poinding  that  the  char- 
ter was  likely  to  expire  by  default,  Mr.  Wright  hastened 
to  St.  Paul,  bought  the  charter  of  its  owners,  organized  a 
new  company  called  the  Western  Railroad  Company  of 
Mirnesota,  secured  for  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  five 
hundred  and  one  of  its  one  thousand  shares,  and  with 
other  members  of  the  board  raised  the  money  to  build 
the  road.  An  account  of  the  energetic  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Wright  managed  this  new  undertaking  is  given  in 
another  chapter. 

With  prosperous  times  in  the  country  and  the  constant 
increase  in  the  net  earnings  of  the  road,  a  new  spirit  of 


M 


2l6 


NORTHERN  PA  UFIC  RAILROAD. 


enterprise  and  confidence  began  to  animate  the  board  of 
directors.  In  January,  1878,  the  project  of  George  W. 
Wright  for  a  branch  railroad  from  Wadena  to  Fergus 
Falls  and  Pelican  Rapids,  in  Minnesota,  was  adopted.  In 
May  of  the  same  year  the  President  was  authorized  to 
have  a  line  surveyed  from  a  point  near  Bismarck  to  Dead- 
wood  in  the  Black  Hills.  Congress  was  asked  to  give  a 
charter  and  a  right  of  way  to  this  line  as  a  branch  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  and  a  bill  for  this  purpose  passed  the 
Senate,  but  failed  in  the  House,  owing  to  the  unreason- 
able hostility  of  many  of  the  members  of  that  body  toward 
all  projects  for  building  railroads  through  the  public 
lands.  At  the  same  time  a  survey  was  ordered  to  be 
made  for  a  branch  from  the  main  line  of  the  Northern 
Pacific,  at  a  point  west  of  the  Red  River,  to  the  interna- 
tional boundary  line.  This  line  was  run,  and  twenty  miles 
of  the  road  subsequently  known  as  the  Casselton  Branch 
were  built  the  next  year. 

During  the  fall  of  1878,  numerous  financial  schemes 
were  discussed  for  extending  the  road  from  the  crossing 
(  "the  Missouri  to  the  Yellowstone,  and  also  for  commcnc- 
i  ,  work  on  the  main  line  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  De- 
cember a  plan  of  construction  for  the  Missouri  Division 
was  brought  before  the  board  by  Frederick  Billings, 
and  adopted.  It  provided  for  an  issue  of  bonds  to 
an  amount  not  exceeding  $2,500,000,  secured  by  a 
mortgage  on  the  Division  from  the  Missouri  River  to 
the  mouth  of  Glendive  Creek,  on  the  Yellowstone,  and 
upon  all  the  land  of  the  grant  appertaining  to  that 
portion  of  the  line.  It  also  provided  for  an  issue  of  pre- 
ferred stock  of  equal  amount  to  the  Issue  of  bonds.  Sub- 
scriptions were  to  be  made  to  the  stock  at  par,  and  each 
share  of  stock  of  $100  taken  carried  with  it  a  $100  bond 
without  any  further  payment.  The  subscribers  to  this 
loan  thus  obtained  for  every  §100  they  invested  securities 


CHARLES  B.    WRIGHT'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


217 


which  have  since  become  worth  $300.  The  Missouri  Di- 
vision loan  was  speedily  taken,  and  the  work  of  construc- 
tion west  of  the  Missouri  River  began  early  in  the  spring 
of  1879.  Hostile  Sioux  Indians  roamed  over  the  country 
at  the  time,  and  surveying  and  grading  had  to  be  carried 
on  under  the  protection  of  troops.  General  Rosser,  a 
dashing  Confederate  cavalry  leader  in  the  war  of  the  re- 
bellion, was  the  company's  chief  engineer  at  the  time, 
and  was  not  the  sort  of  man  to  hesitate  at  any  danger. 
He  made  the  first  survey  from  tlie  Missouri  to  the  Yel- 
lowstone with  no  military  escort,  when  it  was  dangerous 
to  cross  the  river  at  Bismarck,  and  when  the  fort  on  the 
opposite  bank  was  constantly  guarded  by  sentries  and 
pickets.  The  division  was  more  costly  to  build  than  the 
engineer's  estimates  indicated,  owing  chiefly  to  the  nu- 
merous bridges  required  over  the  Heart,  Curlew  and 
Green  Rivers.  Before  it  was  completed  the  whole  amount 
of  the  loan  was  exhausted,  and  a  floating  debt  incurred 
of  nearly  a  million  more. 

On  the  24th  of  May,  1879,  M"*-  Wright  resigned  the  presi- 
dency on  account  of  ill  health,  feeling  that  the  finances 
of  the  Company  were  at  last  placed  upon  a  sound  basis, 
and  that  the  further  construction  of  the  road  was  assured. 
The  Company  had  been  rescued  from  bankruptcy,  and 
brought  through  a  long  period  of  business  depression.  Its 
future  looked  bright,  and  Mr.  Wright  thought  that  the 
time  had  come  when  he  could  retire  from  its  active  man- 
agement and  take  needed  rest.  The  directors,  on  accepting 
liis  resigpation,  passed  a  series  of  complimentary  resolu- 
tions, to  mark  their  appreciation  of  his  services,  declaring 
that "  To  have  successfully  brought  the  Company  to  its 
present  position  has  been  a  task  which  required  talents 
of  no  common  order;  to  rebuild  the  fallen  edifice  of 
credit  which,  when  once  shaken,  is  the  most  difficult  of 
all  things   to   restore ;   to   combine,  as    he  has   done,   a 


'ii' 


2l8 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


thorough  and  searching  economy  with  the  full  main- 
tenance  of  efficiency  ;  to  have  preserved  friendship  where 
it  existed,  and  to  have  conciliated  almost  every  hostile 
element  that  was  to  be  encountered — these  are  indeed 
laurels  to  any  administrator." 


i'i, 


ull  main- 
lip  where 
ry  hostile 
■e  indeed 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


RENEWED   APPEALS   TO   CONGRESS. 


3 
O 


Unwillingness  of  Cai"  '.alists  to  Furnisli  Money  for  Completing  the  Northern 
Pacific  Road — Preferred  Slock  Sells  for  25  to  30 — The  Directors  make 
a  Fresh  Appeal  to  Congress  in  1874 — Benj.  F.  Wade's  Services — A  Bill 
Guaranteeing  Interest  on  the  Company's  Bonds — A  Hopeless  Effort  from 
the  Start — Public  Opinion  Strongly  Opposed  to  Further  Aid  to  Railroads 
— Failure  of  the  Bill--Bills  for  an  Extension  of  Time  Pass  the  Senate  but 
Fail  in  the  House — The  Company  Determines  to  Rest  on  Its  Charter 
Rights — Validity  of  the  Entire  Land  Grant  Affirmed  by  Attorney-General 
Devens. 

The  reorganization  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company, 
although  one  of  the  most  brilliant  achievements  known  in 
the  history  of  great  corporations,  did  not  regain  public 
confidence  for  the  undertaking.  The  debt  of  the  Com- 
pany was  wiped  out,  and  it  was  left  in  the  unembar- 
rassed possession  of  550  miles  of  completed  road  with 
the  valuable  land  grant  attached  to  it,  and  with  all 
the  possibilities  ahead  of  the  growth  of  traffic  result- 
ing from  the  settlement  of  the  great  wheat  belt  of 
Northern  Minnesota  and  Dakota,  and  of  the  immense 
business  to  result  from  the  ultimate  completion  of  the 
line  across  the  continent.  Nevertheless  the  capitalists 
of  the  money  centres  looked  askance  at  the  enterprise, 
and  the  community  in  general  regarded  it  as  Quixotic. 
iM-om  25  to  30  cents  on  the  dollar  was  all  that  could  be 
got  in  Wall  Street  for  the  preferred  stock  into  which  the 
seven-thirty  Jay  Cooke  bonds  had  been  converted  under 
the  plan  of  reorganization.  The  country  was  slowly 
passing  through  a  period  of  hard  times  and  business  de- 
pressions following  the  panic  of  1873.  Money  was  scarce, 
to  use  the  common  phrase ;  though  in  fact  money  was 


220 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD, 


plenty,  but  confidence  was  scarce.  People  hung  on  tightly 
to  their  funds,  and  had  no  mind  to  invest  them  in  the  se- 
curities of  railways  running  out  into  the  wilderness  of  the 
far  West. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  the  managers  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  were  at  a  loss  what  to  do.  They  could  not  go  on 
with  the  road,  and  to  stop  for  a  considerable  time  seemed 
likely  to  gravely  imperil  the  future  success  of  the  enter- 
prise as  a  great  continental  line.  In  their  dilemma  they 
could  think  of  nothing  better  than  to  fall  back  on 
Congress  for  help.  They  went  over  to  Washington  in  the 
spring  of  1874,  and  engaged  the  services,  as  counsel,  of 
Benj.  F.  Wade,  of  Ohio,  who  had  lately  completed  his 
long  service  in  the  Senate,  and  was  one  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous and  influential  men  at  the  national  capital.  In 
May,  a  memorial  was  presented  to  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Rcnresentatives,  signed  by  President  Wright,  stating 
the  Company's  inability  to  complete  the  road  with  the 
means  at  its  disposal,  and  asking  for  such  additional  leg- 
islation as  -\'ould  render  available  the  aid  already  given 
by  Congress,  and  secure  the  accomplishment  of  the  great 
work  for  which  the  charter  was  granted.  There  was  no 
tim^  ,  as  the  end  of  the  session  was  close  at  hand,  to  get 
consideration  for  the  memorial  and  the  bill  accompanying 
it ;  but  at  ihe  ensuing  session,  beginning  in  December,  1874, 
a  strong  effort  was  made  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  bill. 
Governor  Potts,  of  Montana,  a  Territory  vitally  interested 
in  the  completion  of  the  Northern  Pacific  road,  came  on  to 
Washington  and  put  his  name  with  Mr.  Wade's  to  a  doc- 
ument entitled  "  A  brief  Statement  concerning  the  pro- 
posed Legislation  to  secure  the  early  Completion  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad."  This  document  was  headed 
"  Revival  of  Industry — Employment  of  Labor — Develop- 
ment of  the  Country."  It  argued,  on  high  patriotic 
grounds,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  step  in  with 


RENEWED  APPEALS   TO   CONGRESS. 


221 


;  was  no 


a  loan  of  the  credit  of  the  Government  to  secure  the  com 
plction  of  the  road.     The  bill  was  the  old  project  of  a 
guarantee  of  interest  on  the  Company's  bonds  which  had 
been  urged  unsuccessfully  in  1867  and  1868.      Its  provis- 
ions were  as  follows  : 

"First.  That  the  Company  may  issue,  in  addition  to  bonds  heretofore 
iijucd,  its  5  percent,  30-year  gold  bonds,  to  the  amount  of  $50,000  iJermile 
of  its  authorized  line  of  road,  the  entire  issue  to  be  delivered  by  the  Com- 
pany to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

"  S:coiuh  Tliat  as  often  as  the  Company  shall  complete  and  equip  a  sec- 
tion oftwenty  or  more  miles  of  new  road,  and  the  same  shall  have  been  accepted 
as  first-class  by  Government  Commissioners,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
sliall  deliver  to  the  Company  $40,000  of  its  authorized  5  per  cent,  bonds  for 
each  mile  of  the  section  thus  completed  ;  each  bond  so  delivered  to  the  Com- 
pany to  bear  a  guarantee  by  the  United  States  Government  of  the  payment 
of  the  interest  thereon.  The  remaining  $iO,coo  of  authorized  5  per  cent, 
bonds  per  mile  (equivalent  to  20  per  cent,  of  the  entire  amount  to  be  issued 
to  complete  the  road)  shall  be  retained  in  the  United  States  Treasury  as  a 
reserve  interest  fuini,  to  be  used  as  hereafter  named. 

"  Third,  That  as  often  as  the  Company  shall  complete  a  2omi'e  section 
and  apply  for  a  corresponding  Instalment  of  its  guarant^vd  bonds,  it  shall 
deposit  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  .$50,000  of  its  7  3-10  first 
mortgage  bonds  for  each  mile  of  the  section  thus  completed.  These  7  3-10 
first  mortgage  bonds  are  to  remain  in  the  United  States  Treasury,  in  trust, 
to  secure,  y?rj"/,  the  United  States  Government  for  its  guarantee  of  interest ; 
and,  second,  the  bondholders  of  the  new  5  per  cent,  bonds,  the  prineipal  qI 
wliich  will  not  bear  the  Government  guarantee. 

"Fourth.  That,  to  provide  and  secure  the  payment  into  the  United 
States  Treasury  of  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  the  guaranteed  interest,  as  it 
sliall  fall  due  :  ist,  the  Company  shall,  within  sixty  days  after  the  approval  of 
tliis  Act,  convey  and  surrender  to  the  Uni'»:d  .States  Government  its  entire 
biid-grant,  earned  and  to  be  earned,  aggregating  about  fifty  million  acres, 
in  trust,  to  be  sold,  subject  to  existing  equities,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  to  actual  settlers  on  agricultural  lands  at  the 
minimum  price  of  $2.50  per  acre,  the  entire  net  proceeds  of  sales  each  six 
months  to  be  paid  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  fifteen  days  before 
tiie  maturity  of  the  next  semi-annual  instalment  of  guaranteed  interest  ;  2d, 
every  six  months  the  entire  net  earnings  of  the  road  for  the  previous  si.x 
months,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  shall  be  paid  into  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States,  accompanied  by  a  sworn  statement  of  the 
business  of  the  road  during  the  same  period  ;  3d,  if  at  any  time  the  proceeds 
of  sales  of  land,  together  with  the  net  earnings  of  the  road,  and  any  other 


222 


NORTlIERiY  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


. !  ■.  i ' 


sums  paid  over  by  llic  Company,  shall  be  insufficient  to  meet  tlic  next  pay- 
ment of  guaranteetl  interest,  then  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  sell 
sufficient  of  the  Company's  5  percent,  guaranteed  bonds,  retained  by  liim  as 
security  (mentioned  in  paragraph  Sicoiid),  and  apply  the  proceeds  to  meet 
the  deficieiu;y. 

"  I-i/l/i.  That  all  surplus  funds  in  the  United  States  Treasury  arising 
from  the  sale  of  land,  in  excess  of  current  interest  payments,  shall,  from  the 
outset,  be  paid  into  a  Sinking  Fund  for  the  [layment  of  the  jjriiicipal  and  in- 
terest of  the  bonds  authorized  by  this  act  ;  and  from  and  after  the  year  iSSS, 
the  Company  shall  make  the  yearly  payment  into  the  Sinking  Fund  equal  to 
one  per  cent,  of  the  entire  issue  of  guaranteed  bonds. 

*'  Sii/h.  That  any  holder  of  the  outstanding  7-30  first  mortgage  bonds 
of  the  Company,  issued  prior  to  the  passage  of  this  Act,  may  exchange  them 
for  the  Company's  5  per  cent,  guaranteed  bonds,  bearing  interest  from  Janu- 
ary I,  1878,  on  the  terms  to  be  fixed  in   the  Act. 

"  Si-it-itlh.  That  Congress  may  fix  and  determine  fares,  tolls  and  cliargcs 
on  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  ]irovidcd  that  such  government  control 
shall  not  impair  nor  defeat  the  security  sought  to  be  given  by  this  Act." 

Arguments  and  appeals,  statistics  and  statements, 
letters,  newspapers  and  documents  were  brought  to  bear 
upon  Congress,  with  no  result.  The  offer  to  practically 
surrender  the  whole  land  grant  produced  little  effect. 
Public  opinion  was  stubbornly  hostile  to  any  further  aid 
being  given  by  the  Government  to  railroads  in  the  West, 
and  Congress  did  not  dare  to  face  the  current  of  this 
strong  sentiment.  The  bill  did  not  even  reach  a  position 
for  discussion  in  either  house.  It  was,  in  effect,  smoth- 
ered at  its  birth. 

Further  efforts  at  Washington  were  now  confined  to 
urging  an  extension  of  time  for  completing  the  road.  In 
February,  1S76,  a  bill  passed  the  Senate,  without  much 
opposition,  prolonging  the  limit  eight  years,  which,  under 
the  interpretation  placed  by  the  Interior  Department 
upon  the  existing  legislation,  would  have  carried  it  to  July 
4th,  1887.  A  favorable  report  was  made  upon  the  bill 
by  the  House  Pacific  Railroad  Committee,  and  it  went 
over  as  unfinished  business  to  the  next  session.  The  ex- 
citement over  the  disputed  presidential  election  and  the 


REXEIVED  APPEALS   TO   COXGRESS. 


223 


next  pay- 
shall  sdl 
by  liim  as 
is  to  meet 

iiy  ailsin;^ 
,  from  tlic 
lal  ami  in- 
year  iSSS, 
(I  equal  to 

;a{;e  bonds 
nngQ  them 
'rom  Jami- 

11(1  eharges 
■nt  eontiol 
Act." 

:cmcnts, 
:  to  bear 
:ictically 
;  effect, 
ther  aid 
West, 

of  this 
position 

smoth- 

ncd  to 
i\(\.  In 
much 
,  under 

rtment 

to  July 
the  bill 

t  went 
The  ex- 
and  the 


electoral  count  in  the  winter  of  1876-7,  made  it  difficult  to 
bring  any  new  measures  before  the  1  louse.  The  bill  could 
not  be  got  on  the  calendar  so  as  to  be  reached  in  regular 
order.  A  decision  of  the  Speaker,  that  under  the  rules  a 
two-thirds  vote  was  necessary  to  take  it  up  for  final  pas- 
sage, was,  in  this  condition  of  affairs,  fatal.  It  was  late 
at  night  of  the  last  day  of  the  session.  The  bill,  just  as 
it  had  been  passed  by  the  Senate,  was  reported  and  moved. 
There  was  very  little,  if  any,  opposition  to  it.  It  asked 
for  nothing  but  time.  It  asked  for  neither  money  nor 
bonds.  A  great  majority  of  the  members  elected  to  the 
House  were  unquestionably  in  favor  of  the  bill  as  a 
measure  of  public  policy,  and  an  act  of  justice  to  a  large 
body  of  innocent  stockholders  who  had  been  prevented  by 
the  financial  panic  from  completing  the  road  on  time. 
These  stockholders,  over  10,000  in  number,  constituted  a 
strong  influence  in  the  constituencies  of  twenty-one  States 
and  Territories.  On  the  call  of  the  roll  120  members  did 
not  answer  their  names.  They  were  absent  from  the 
House,  worn  out  by  protracted  sessions  and  excitement. 
The  bill  failed  to  get  the  two-thirds  vote  necessary  to  take 
it  up,  though  it  received  a  large  majority  of  the  votes  of 
the  members  present. 

The  President  of  the  Company,  with  the  general  coun- 
sel, the  special  counsel,  and  a  number  of  the  directors, 
made  another  effort  at  the  succeeding  session,  beginning 
in  December,  1867.  Exhaustive  hearings  were  had  before 
the  committees  of  both  houses.  A  bill  passed  the  Senate 
granting  an  extension  of  ten  years,  but  containing  some 
provisions  objectionable  to  the  Company  concerning  the 
line  down  the  Columbia  River.  This  bill  went  to  the  table 
of  the  House.  An  attempt  was  made,  near  the  close 
of  the  session,  to  take  it  up  for  consideration  and 
amendment,  out  of  its  regular  order,  but  the  required 
two-thirds  vote  could  not  then  be  obtained.     The  House 


224 


JVOA'T//£A\V  PACirJC  RAILROAD. 


iS.i'i:. 


Committee,  after  great  delays,  and  hearings  protracted  to 
a  vexatious  extent,  by  parties  desiring  to  seize  tiie  Co- 
lumbia River  jjortion  of  the  line,  for  the  benefit  of  a 
branch  to  the  Union  Pacific  road,  finally  reported  a  bill, 
extending  the  time  for  constructing  the  main  line,  which 
bill  went  upon  the  calendar  of  the  House,  and  so  over 
to  the  next  session.  It  was  not  feasible  to  reach  this 
bill  during  the  short  session,  which  ended  on  the  4th  of 
March,  and  another  attempt  was  therefore  made  to  sus- 
pend the  rules  and  to  take  from  the  Speaker's  table  for 
amendment  and  passage  the  extension  bill,  which  liad 
passed  the  Senate.  The  session  was  so  near  its  end  the 
bill  could  not  be  reached  in  the  ordinary  course  of  busi- 
ness. The  motion  for  a  suspension  of  the  rules,  requir- 
ing a  two-thirds  vote,  Avas  lost,  though  133  voted  in  its 
favor,  to  104  against. 

During  the  session  of  1879-80,  the  Pacific  Railroad 
Committees  in  both  houses  reported  extension  bills,  but 
no  further  action  was  taken  upon  them.  Tl:e  time  for 
the  completion  of  the  road  had  now  expired,  and  also 
the  year  of  grace  allowed  by  the  charter  before  Congress 
could  take  any  action  in  reference  to  the  land  grant. 
The  Company  was  energetically  pushing  the  road  for- 
ward from  both  ends.  The  gap  remaining  to  be  built 
June  30,  1880,  was  at  that  time  about  1,000  miles.  It  was 
wisely  determined  to  rest  on  the  Company's  rights  under 
the  charter,  and  in  future  to  ask  nothing  from  Congress, 
and  to  do  nothing  in  Washington  beyond  taking  proper 
measures  to  defend  those  rights.  The  Attorney-General 
of  the  United  States,  General  Devens,  now  on  the  Su- 
preme Bench  of  Massachusetts,  had  decided,  in  1879, 
"That  the  time  specified  for  the  completion  of  the  road 
would  not  expire  until  July  4th,  1879;  '^"^j  further,  that 
if  such  were  not  the  true  construction  of  the  various  pro- 
visions of  the  Acts  of  Congress,  it  must  be  held  that  until 


RENEWED  APPEAL   TO   CONGRESS. 


225 


Congress  takes  steps  to  declare  a  forfeiture  of  the  grant 
it  remains  in  full  force  and  effect ;  and  that  in  either 
event  the  grant  to-day  must  be  held  to  be  the  same  as 
it  existed  on  the  day  when  it  was  made  and  accepted  by 
the  Company." 

The  Company  was  satisfied  that  no  action  adverse  to 
its  interests  would  be  taken  by  Congress,  so  long  as  it 
was  energetically  at  work  completing  its  line.  Besides, 
Congress  was  precluded  by  the  charter  from  taking 
possession  of  the  land  grant  and  restoring  it  to  the 
public  domain.  Its  power  in  the  premises  was  limited 
to  doing  "  any  and  all  acts  and  things  which  may  be 
needful  and  necessary  to  insure  a  speedy  completion 
of  the  road."  There  could  manifestly  be  no  reason  for 
interfering  when  the  'oad  was  being  built  as  fast  as  prac- 
ticable. This  was  the  attitude  of  the  Company  in  the 
years  following  until  the  completion  of  the  road.  It  was 
fully  endorsed  by  a  report  from  the  Judiciary  Committee 
of  the  House  in  1882,  and  none  of  the  numerous  bills  in- 
troduced to  declare  the  grant  forfeited  have  ever  obtained 
from  either  Senate  or  House  any  consideration  other 
than  the  formal  one  of  a  reference  to  a  committee  under 
the  rules. 


15 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


PRESIDENCY    OF   FREDERICK   BILLINGS. 


Mr.  Killings'  Birth  and  Education — lie  Becomes  a  California  rioneer  of 
i84(j — A  Lawyer  in  San  Francisco — His  Early  Interest  in  the  Northern 
Pacific  Project — Declines  a  Nomination  for  Congress — Returns  to  llie 
East — Chosen  a  Northern  Pacific  Director  in  1870 — Organizes  the  Land 
Department — Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee — Elected  President 
in  1879 — A  General  First  Mortgage  Executed — Agreement  with  a  Syndi- 
cate of  Bankers — The  liismarck  Bridge — St.  Paul  Terminal  I'acililies — 
General  Offices  and  Brainerd  Shops — Mr.  Billings'  Resignation — Im- 
proved Condition  of  the  Company. 

Frederick  Billings,  who  succeeded  C.  B.  Wright  in 
the  presidency  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  was  born 
at  Royalton,  in  Vermont,  September  27th,  1823.  Twelve 
years  later  his  father  moved  to  Woodstock,  Vt.,  where 
the  family  home  has  been  ever  since.  He  entered  the 
University  of  Vermont  at  Burlington,  in  1840,  and,  grad- 
uating in  1844,  immediately  commenced  to  study  law,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar  early  in  1848.  In  January,  1849, 
Mr.  Billings  started  for  California  by  way  of  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama,  arriving  at  San  Francisco  April  1st  of  that 
year.  He  began  at  once  the  practice  of  law  by  himself, 
but  was  soon  joined  in  partnership  by  Archibald  C. 
Peachy,  and  the  firm  became  Peachy  and  Billings.  When 
California  adopted  a  State  Constitution,  and  in  January, 
1850,  passed  out  of  the  military  government,  General  IT. 
W.  Hallcck,  who  had  been  secretary  of  that  government 
under  General  Mason,  resigned  from  the  army,  and  was 
taken  into  the  firm,  having  specially  in  charge  the  matter 
of  Spanish  and  Mexican  land  titles,  with  which  he  had 
made  himself  familiar.  Still  later,  Trcnor  W.  Park  became 
a  partner,  and  the  firm  was  afterwards  Halleck,  Peachy, 


Pioneer  of 
c  Xorthein 
urns  to  llic 
s  the  I, ami 
I  rrcsick'iU 
th  a  Syiidi- 
I'acililies — 
alioii — Im- 


/right  in 

,vas  born 

Twelve 

t.,  where 

prcd  the 

id,  grad- 

law,  and 

ry,  1849, 

Isthmus 

of  that 

himself, 

bald   C. 

When 

anuary, 

cral  H. 

rnment 

md  was 

matter 

he  had 

became 

'cachy, 


Alice  Falls,  Montana. 


Bi 

an 


Ai 


Mr 
he 


PRESIDENCY  OF  FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 


227 


Billings  and  Park.  The  firm  was  a  very  successful  one, 
and  continued  until  the  early  part  of  1861,  when  Mr.  Bil- 
lings went  to  England  as  the  attorney  of  General  Fremont 
in  connection  with  the  Mariposa  estate.  Returning  to 
America  in  1862,  he  was  married  in  New  York  City  in 
March  of  that  year,  to  Miss  Julia  Parmly,  and  returned  to 
California,  where  he  remained  till  November,  1863.  With 
impaired  health,  he  then  came  back  to  New  York,  but  in 
March,  1865,  taking  a  voyage  by  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
he  again  tried  California,  and  in  pursuit  of  health  went  by 
land  to  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory,  making  a  trip 
up  the  Columbia  River  and  through  Puget  Sound.  He 
became  so  impressed  with  the  greatness  and  resources  of 
that  region,  and  with  the  necessity  for  a  more  direct  com- 
munication with  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent,  that 
subsequently,  when  he  gave  up  his  home  in  California  in 
March,  1866,  and  came  back  to  Vermont,  he  went  to 
Washington  to  aid  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany in  its  effort  to  obtain  a  bond  subsidy  from  the  govern- 
ment. This  was  in  1867.  Mr.  Billings  had  at  that  time 
no  business  interest  whatever  in  the  enterprise,  and  was 
simply  carrying  out  the  promises  he  had  made  to  people  in 
Oregon  and  Washington  Teritory,  to  aid  as  far  as  he  could 
the  construction  of  this  overland  route.  No  one  could 
have  lived  as  long  as  Mr.  Billings  had  on  the  Pacific  coast> 
and  made  the  journey  so  many  times  between  New  York 
and  San  Francisco  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
without  becoming  profoundly  interested  in  everything 
tending  to  bring  the  world  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
nearer,  whether  it  was  by  an  overland  stage,  a  pony  ex- 
press, or  a  railroad.  Mr.  Billings  was  one  of  the  original 
promoters  of  the  Overland  Stage  Company,  and  in  1866 
became  largely  interested,  financially  and  otherwise,  in  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  chartered  June 
17th,  1866,  by  the  United  States  Government,  to  build 


228 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


%• 


from  Springfield,  Missouri,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  on  the  line 
of  the  35th  parallel.  Its  charter  was  very  similar  to  that 
of  the  Northern  Pacific,  and  Mr.  Billings  was  a  director 
in  this  company  for  many  years. 

Mr.  Billings  left  California  with  profound  regret.  He 
was  one  of  the  pioneers,  had  been  the  legal  adviser  of  Gen- 
eral Mason's  military  government,  was  identified  with  the 
growth  of  San  Francisco  and  the  State,  connected  with 
many  public  institutions,  and  prominent  in  public  affairs. 
His  professional  and  business  life  had  been  a  success,  and 
when  he  came  away  there  was  no  one  at  the  Bar  of  San 
Francisco  who  had  been  there  as  long  as  himself.  He 
had  been  offered  a  nomination  for  Congress,  but  had  de- 
clined it,  and  was  urged  by  the  Pacific  Coast  delegation 
in  Congress  for  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
who  had  said,  just  before  he  was  shot,  that  he  should 
appoint  him.  In  1866,  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  leg- 
islature, he  was  urged  for  a  seat  in  President  Johnson's 
Cabinet.  California  had  been  Mr.  Billings'  home  for  tlie 
best  part  of  his  life,  and  he  lo!"',ged  to  remain  there,  but 
under  the  advice  of  physicians  he  came  back  to  Wood- 
stock, Vermont,  which  he  has  since  made  his  home, 
although  spending  most  of  his  time  for  fourteen  years  in 
New  York  in  the  service  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Com- 
pany, 

In  1869,  Mr.  Billings  purchased  of  Hiram  Walbridge 
one  of  the  original  twelve  interests  in  the  Northern 
Pacific  enterprise,  and  at  \.\\i  first  election  thereafter, 
and  after  the  contract  was  made  with  Jay  Cooke 
&  Co.,  he  came  into  the  board  of  directors,  March 
9th,  1870,  and  was  made  chairman  of  the  land  com- 
mittee. By  this  time  the  Company  had  obtained  the 
legislation  amending  its  charter  so  as  to  give  it  the 
right  to  mortgage  the  road  and  land  grant  and  fran- 
chises, and   with  Jay  Cooke  &   Co.  as  its  fiscal   agents, 


PRESIDENCY  OF  FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 


229 


in  the  line 
ar  to  that 
a  director 

jret.  He 
cr  of  Gen- 
1  with  tlie 
:cted  with 
lie  affairs, 
ccess,  and 
lar  of  San 
isclf.  He 
it  had  do- 
Jclcgation 
.  Lincoln, 
he  should 
)f  the  leg- 
Johnson's 
TIC  for  the 
there,  but 
to  Wood- 
US  home, 
n  years  in 
:ific  Com- 

Valbridge 
Northern 
hereafter, 
y  Cooke 
rs,  IMarch 
and  corn- 
lined  the 
\^e  it  the 
and  fran- 
1   agents, 


was  able  to  go  ahead  with  ti  e  active  work  of  building  its 


ro 


ad. 


Mr.  Billings  went  with  President  Smith  and  several  other 
directors  in  August,  1871,  to  locate  the  crossing  of  the 
Red  River  of  the  North.  The  road  was  then  finished 
only  to  the  Crow  Wing  River,  about  twenty  miles  beyond 
Brainerd.  There  was  then  no  settlement  where  the 
crossing  was  fixed,  and  where  Fargo  and  Moorhead  are 
now.  The  excursion  was  extended  to  the  second  cross- 
ing of  the  Cheyenne,  fifty-eight  miles  beyond  the  Red 
River.  Mr.  Billings  also  went  with  President  Cass  and 
several  other  directors  to  Oregon  and  Washington  Ter- 
ritory in  September,  1872,  for  the  purpose,  among  other 
things,  of  locating  the  Northern  Pacific  terminus  on  Puget 
Sound.  In  March,  1873,  he  went  with  R.  D.  Rice,  of 
Maine,  then  Vice-President,  and  W.  G.  Moorhead,  a 
director,  to  San  Francisco.  The  three  had  been  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  confer  with  persons  relative  to 
enlistment  of  new  capital,  and  to  receive  and  dispose  of 
any  proposals  for  constructing  road  on  the  Pacific  side. 
They  were  accompanied  bj'  William  Milnor  Roberts,  the 
Company's  engineer-in-chief. 

Mr.  Billings  organiz^-a  the  land  department,  and,  as 
chairman  of  the  land  committee,  or  managing  director 
of  the  land  department,  remained  in  charge  of  the  land 
grant  until  the  reorganization  in  September,  1875.  He 
has  continued  in  the  board  of  directors  ever  since  his  first 
entry,  and  only  one  member  of  the  present  board,  Benj. 
P.  Cheney,  of  Boston,  has  held  office  as  long.  At  the 
time  of  the  reorganization,  in  1875,  ^^^  ^^as  appointed 
chairman  of  the  executive  committee,  of  which  he  had 
been  a  member  since  1872,  and  remained  in  that  position 
till  his  election  as  president,  May  24th,  1879,  ^"^  the 
resignation  of  Mr.  Wright.  Mr.  Billings'  connection  with 
the   reorganization  scheme,  of  which  he  was  the  author, 


^^ 


230 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


has  been  described  in  a  preceding  chapter  devoted  to 
that  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  company. 

On  his  advice  the  directors  determined  to  recommence 
construction  operations  on  the  Pacific  coast.  They  first 
thought  of  building  from  Portland  to  Kalama,  in  order  to 
secure  an  all-rail  route  from  the  Oregon  metropolis  to 
Puget  Sound,  but  they  wisely  deferred  the  execution  of 
this  part  of  their  general  project.  There  was  evidently 
no  hurry  about  paralleling  a  navigable  river  with  a  rail- 
road while  so  much  of  the  interior  line  remained  to  be 
built.  They,  therefore,  determined  to  begin  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Snake  and  Columbia  rivers,  and  build  cast- 
ward  across  the  great  plain  of  the  Columbia  to  Lake  Pcnd 
d'Oreille. 

The  plan  for  raising  money  to  build  the  Pend  d'Oreille 
Division  differed  somewhat  from  that  adopted  for  the 
Missouri  Division  loan,  Mr.  Billings  being  the  «athor 
of  both,  and  was  more  favorable  to  the  Company.  The 
mortgi^ge  covered  the  road  and  the  land  grant  apper- 
taining to  it.  Bonds  to  the  amount  of  $20,000  per  mile 
— the  Division  being  225  miles  long — svere  authorized, 
bearing  interest  at  six  per  cent.,  and  subscribers  at  first 
received  a  gratuity  of  $70  in  preferred  stock  for  each 
$100  of  bonds  they  took  at  par,  but  before  the  loan  closed 
better  terms  were  obtained  by  the  Company.  In  the  case 
of  the  Missouri  loan  $200  of  bonds  and  stock  issued  pro- 
duced $100  in  cash  ;  in  the  case  of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  loan 
$170  of  bonds  and  stock  produced  §100  in  cash.  The 
difference  in  the  terms  of  the  two  loans  was  probably  a 
fair  index  to  the  improving  credit  of  the  company.  The 
total  amount  of  bonds  issued  under  the  Pend  d'Oreille 
Division  mortgage  was  $4,500,000.  Construction  work 
on  this  Division  began  in  October,  1879,  under  the  super- 
vision of  General  J.  W.  Sprague,  the  Company's  general 
agent,  and  manager  on  the  Pacific  coast. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 


231 


In  the  fall  of  1880,  while  the  Missouri  and  Pend 
d'Oreillc  Divisions  of  the  Northern  Pacific  main  line  were 
under  construction,  it  seemed  wise  to  commence  build- 
ing on  the  Yellowstone,  and  to  be  prepared  for  work  on 
the  whole  line.  President  Billings  had  already  caused 
grading  to  be  begun  in  Hell  Gate  Cafion,  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  in  order  to  occupy  that  important  defile  in 
advance  of  the  Utah  Northern  Company,  which  was 
building  in  that  direction,  and  also  between  Wallula 
and  the  Snake  River  crossing  in  Washington  Ter- 
ritory. While  previously  it  had  been  considered  that 
a  general  mortgage  upon  the  whole  line  and  property 
and  franchises,  including  the  franchise  to  be  a  corpora- 
tion, would  not  be  a  success  for  the  reason  that  the  pub- 
lic would  be  afraid  that  in  so  large  a  scheme  disaster 
might  come  again,  and  that  therefore  it  was  almost  an  ab- 
solute necessity  to  adopt  the  policy  of  division  mortgages, 
it  now  seemed  that  the  Company  was  so  accredited  with 
the  public,  and  the  enterprise  was  so  much  better  under- 
stood, that  the  policy  of  a  general  mortgage  covering  the 
entire  line  and  the  whole  property  of  the  Company  would 
be  the  true  one  to  adopt. 

The  first  banking  firm  which  took  an  active  interest  in 
the  matter  of  a  loan  to  provide  means  for  the  completion 
of  the  road,  was  that  of  Winslow,  Lanier  &  Co.,  of  New 
York.  Mr.  John  W.  Ellis,  of  that  firm,  had  been 
asked  by  Jay  Cooke  in  1869,  to  join  him  in  placing  the 
first  loan.  Mr.  Ellis,  who  then  lived  in  Cincinnati,  had 
been  connected  with  Cooke  in  the  sale  of  Government 
bonds,  and,  while  on  a  visit  to  him  at  his  summer  home  at 
Gibraltar,  on  Lake  Erie,  was  urged  to  take  hold  of  the 
financial  scheme  for  building  the  Northern  Pacific.  He 
declined,  believing  that  the  project  was  premature,  al- 
though he  then  thought  its  ultimate  outcome  would  be  a 
great  success.     After  the  Northern  Pacific  broke  down, 


232 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


financially,  in  1873,  Mr.  Ellis  kept  up  a  quiet  and  watchful 
interest  in  its  affairs  until  the  railroad  revival,  which  be- 
gan in  1878.  In  the  summer  of  1880,  his  particular  atten- 
tion was  drawn  to  it  by  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Wads- 
worth,  the  Vice-President  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and 
St.  Paul  Railroad,  who  had  a  high  opinion  of  the  future  of 
the  enterprise.  At  about  the  same  time  he  had,  on  dif- 
ferent occasions,  conversations  with  two  prominent  army 
ofificers.  Generals  Terry  and  Ruggles,  who  had  been  sta- 
tioned in  the  northwest,  and  who  spoke  in  very  favorable 
terms  of  the  value  of  the  Northeni  Pacific  land  grant. 
General  G.  W.  Cass,  formerly  President  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company,  also  commended  the  enterprise  to  the 
firm.  Winslow,  Lanier  &  Co.  then  made  up  their  minds 
to  look  closely  into  the  matter,  and  to  that  end  President 
Billings  was  invited  to  call  at  the  bank.  He  did  so,  and 
several  hours  were  spent  in  consultation  on  the  subject 
of  a  general  first  mortgage  loan.  After  further  investiga- 
tion this  firm  concluded  that  the  project  was  a  sound 
one,  and  determined  to  request  the  house  of  Drexel, 
Morgan  &  Co.  to  join  them  in  it.  That  firm  did  not  at  first 
regard  the  matter  favorably.  Mr.  Fabbri,  one  of  its  part- 
ners, said  that  Mr.  J.  B.  Williams,  then  second  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  had  already  called 
his  attention  to  the  subject,  but  that  he  had  not  thought 
it  worth  examining.  After  considering  the  matter  for  a 
{^\f  weeks,  however,  Drexel,  Morgan  &  Co.  determined  to 
join  Winslow,  Lanier  &  Co.  in  their  own  behalf,  and  in 
that  of  their  allied  houses.  Drexel  &  Co.  of  Philadelphia, 
and  J.  S.  Morgan  &  Co.,  of  London.  In  the  meantime 
numerous  consultations  had  taken  f'.ice  with  President 
Billings,  the  result  being  that  Mr.  Ellis  and  Mr.  Fabbri 
spent  a  great  deal  of  their  time,  for  over  a  month,  in  per- 
fecting the  details  of  a  mortgage  loan  of  forty  millions. 
They  were  assisted  in  preparing  the  legal  documents  by  J. 


watchful 
I'hich  be- 
lar  atten- 
r.  Wads- 
ukee  and 
future  of 
J,  on  dif- 
:nt  army 
seen  sta- 
favorable 
id  grant. 
Northern 
e  to  the 
nr  minds 
'resident 
1  so,  and 
s  subject 
ivestiga- 
a  sound 
Drexel, 
3t  at  first 
its  part- 
ce-Presi- 
Jy  called 
thought 
:ter  for  a 
nined  to 
f,  and  in 
idelphia, 
leantime 
'resident 
.  Fabbri 
,  in  per- 
millions. 
its  by  J. 


u 


PRESIDENCY  OF  FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 


233 


&: 


,     ', 


C.  Bullitt,  of  Philadelphia,  while  Mr.  Billings  was  aided  in 
the  negotiations  which  he  commenced  and  carried  through 
on  the  part  of  the  Company  by  A.  H.  Barney,  one  of  the 
directors,  and  in  the  preparation  of  the  legal  documents 
connected  therewith  by  the  Company's  counsel,  Colonel 
George  Gray.  After  the  negotiation  was  brought  to  an 
end  and  the  terms  of  the  loan  v/ere  fully  agreed  upon,  an 
offer  was  made  by  Winslow,  Lanier  &  Co.  and  Drexel, 
Morgan  &  Co.  to  the  firm  of  A.  Belmont  &  Co.,  to  join 
them  in  their  contract  with  the  Northern  Pacific  Company, 
which  was  accepted.  These  three  firms,  the  contractors 
for  the  loan,  then  formed  a  syndicate  for  the  sale  of  the 
bonds,  including  among  their  associates  many  of  the 
leading  bankers  of  New  York  and  other  cities. 

The  mortgage  was  dated  January  1st,  188 1,  and  pro- 
vided for  the  issue  of  $40,cxx),ooo  of  bonds  bearing  six 
per  cent,  interest,  payable  semi-annually,  the  principal 
falling  due  in  192 1.  The  terms  of  the  mortgage  only 
permitted  the  issue  of  the  bonds  at  the  rate  of  $25,CXX) 
per  mile  on  sections  of  completed  road  which  had  been 
examined  and  accepted  by  the  Government — a  limitation 
which  gave  rise  to  serious  embarrassment  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  construction  work,  and  would  have  delayed  the 
completion  of  the  road  one  or  two  years,  had  not  the 
difficulty  been  overcome  at  a  later  day,  as  related  in  de- 
tail hereafter,  by  the  creation  of  a  new  company,  which 
used  its  credit  to  obtain  large  advances  of  money  for 
the  management  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company.  In 
order  to  prosecute  the  work  of  construction  with  any 
degree  of  rapidity,  it  was  necessary  to  have  at  command 
funds  to  do  heavy  grading  and  blasting,  build  bridges  and 
open  tunnels  far  in  advance  of  track  laying.  It  was  as- 
sumed that  the  bonds  issuable  against  the  unencumbered 
mileage  east  of  the  Missouri  River  and  on  the  Pacific 
coast  would   amply  provide   for  these   wants,   but   this 


234 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


proved  a  miscalculation.  The  agreement  with  the 
syndicate  of  bankers  who  took  the  loan  was,  in  its 
main  featuics,  as  follows:  The  syndicate  took  $io,- 
0(X),ooo  of  bonds  at  90,  as  of  January  ist,  1881,  and 
were  given  options  to  take  $10,000,000  more  during 
the  year  1881,  at  92^,  to  take  a  third  $10,000,000  during 
1882  at  92!/^,  and  to  take  the  fourth  $10,000,000  at  the 
same  rate  during  1883.  These  options  they  exercised. 
The  Company  further  gave  the  syndicate,  as  a  part  of  the 
consideration  for  taking  the  bonds,  five  per  cent,  upon 
the  amount  taken  in  preferred  stock.  The  contract 
proved  a  very  profitable  one  for  the  syndicate,  which  sold 
the  bonds  above  par,  but  at  the  time  it  was  made  it  was 
thought  by  the  Northern  Pacific  directors  to  be  a  favor- 
able one  for  the  Company,  considering  the  state  of  its 
credit. 

President  Hayes,  General  Sherman,  General  Hancock 
and  many  other  prominent  men  of  the  country,  wrote  let- 
ters of  congratulation  to  Mr.  Billings,  on  the  success  of  the 
financial  scheme  which  ensured  the  completion  of  the 
road.  From  this  time  the  work  went  on  vigorously. 
The  actual  prosecution  of  construction  on  the  road  was 
of  the  greatest  service  to  the  Company  in  warding  off  the 
hostile  attacks  in  Congress  and  elsewhere.  The  Com- 
pany claimed,  as  we  have  already  shown,  not  only  that 
its  land  grant  was  not  subject  to  forfeiture,  but  even  if  it 
were,  on  grounds  of  equity  and  fair  dealing  there  should 
be  no  attempt  to  take  it  away. 

In  1880,  it  was  determined  that ;?  bridge  should  be  built 
across  the  Missouri  River,  at  Bismarck.  The  river  shoaled 
badly,  particularly  on  the  west  side,  was  constantly 
making  shifting  sand-bars,  and  the  crossing  by  a  transfer 
boat  was  circuitous,  difficult  and  expensive,  and  in 
winter  often  impossible  by  reason  of  ice.  George 
S.  Morison,  an  expert  in  bridge  building,  was  employed 


PRESIDENCY  OF  FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 


235 


ransfcr 
nd  in 
ieorge 
)loyed 


to  examine  and  report  upon  the  wliolc  subject,  in  con- 
nection witii  General  Adna  Anderson,  who  had  been 
selected  by  the  President  as  enginecr-in-chicf,  and  ap- 
pointed by  the  board  in  February,  1880.  After  the  re- 
ports were  presented  to  the  board,  President  Killings  was 
authorized  to  contract  for  a  uridge  and  approaches  such 
as  they  recommended,  and  to  employ  Mr.  Morison  to 
superintend  its  erection.  The  contract  for  the  sub- 
structure of  the  bridge  was  made  January  28th,  1881. 

In  1880,  under  the  authority  of  the  board,  Mr.  Bil- 
lings made  a  traffic  contract  dated  October  20th,  with 
Henry  Villard,  President  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  Company,  by  which  the  Northern  Pacific 
secured,  on  favorable  terms,  connection  with  Port- 
land, Oregon,  down  the  Columbia  River  from  its  Pend 
d'Oreille  Division  then  under  construction.  The  O.  R.  & 
N.  Company  running  boats  on  the  river,  cmd  building  a 
railway  from  Portland  to  the  Northern  Pacific  atWallula, 
agreed  to  so  take  care  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company's 
business  between  those  two  points  as  to  justify  the  post- 
ponement of  the  construction  of  that  expensive  part  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  line,  until  the  entire  line  east  had  been 
completed. 

It  was  during  Mr.  Billings'  administration  also  that  a 
traffic  conti  -ct  was  made  with  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis 
and  Manitoba  Company,  by  which  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company  acquired  the  right  to  use  the  tracks  of  the  St. 
Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  Company  for  75^  miles 
from  Sauk  Rapids  to  St.  Paul,  and  so  obtained  an  en- 
trance into  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul  with  its  o^vn  trains ; 
the  provisional  agreement  having  been  made  November 
i8th,  1878,  and  the  formal  contract  August  isl,  1879.  In 
the  arrangement,  the  Northern  Pacific  secured,  with- 
out cost,  about  seventeen  acres  of  valuable  land  in  St. 
Paul  for  depot  purposes  and  terminal  facilities.   This  con- 


^Pffl* 


236 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


tract  failed  in  many  respects  of  accomplishing  its  purpose, 
?nd  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  afterwards  found  it 
.advisable  to  secure  an  independent  line  from  Sauk  Rapids 
to  Minneapolis 

During  Mr.  Billings'  administration  the  general  office 
buildings  in  St.  Paul  were  commenced  and  planned  on 
such  a  scale  as  to  accommodate  under  one  roof  the  various 
departments.  The  extensive  general  machine  shops  at 
Brainerd,  Minn.,  which,  now  completed,  are  not  excelled 
in  efficiency  by  any  railroad  shops  in  the  country  were, 
also  commenced.  There  was  also  a  contract  made  with 
the  proprietors  of  the  city  of  Superior,  in  Wisconsin,  by 
which  they  were  to  convey  one  third  of  their  interests  in 
the  city  to  the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  in  consideration 
of  the  extension  of  the  main  line  eastwards  from  Thomp- 
son Junction  as  far  as  Superior  within  the  year  1881.  The 
work  was  commenced  and  finished  as  agreed.  Mr.  Billings 
commenced  and  finished  forty  miles  of  the  Casselton 
Branch,  commenced  the  Fargo  and  South-western,  and 
secured  the  ownership  of  the  charter,  land  grant,  and 
county  subsidy  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  Fergus  Falls  and 
Black  Hills  Railroad. 

It  may  be  noted,  further,  that  during  Mr.  Billings'  ad- 
ministration the  immense  Indian  Reservations,  existing 
by  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  made  in 
April,  1875,  for  the  benefit  of  various  tribes  of  Indians 
(Arickarccs,  Gros  Ventres,  Picgans,  Mandans,  and  Black- 
feet),  extending  far  north  and  south  of  the  Missouri 
River,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Yellowstone,  were  re- 
duced, by  an  order  of  President  Hayes,  on  July  13th, 
1880.  Nearly  all  of  the  land  south  of  the  Missouri,  and 
east  and  west  of  the  Yellowstone,  embracing  nearly  300 
miles  in  length  and  nearly  200  miles  in  width,  and  cover- 
ing about  150  miles  of  the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific, 
was  thrown    open  to  civilization.      It  was   shown   that 


PRESIDENCY  OF  FREDERICK  BILLINGS. 


237 


and 
s  and 

ad- 


the  Indians  rarely  came  into  this  great  tract,  and  then 
only  for  hunting,  and  that  the  reservations  north  of  the 
Missouri  were  more  than  ample  for  their  uses.  But 
for  this  timely  act  of  President  Hayes,  settlers  would 
have  been  kept  out  of  this  great  area,  the  railroad  could 
have  acquired  no  title  to  its  lands  within  it,  and,  so  far 
as  local  business  is  concerned  in  the  region  in  question, 
might  as  well  have  run  through  a  desert. 

Mr.  Billings,  before  and  during  his  administration  as 
President,  made  several  arguments  before  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road Committees  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  one  of 
which  on  the  "  History  and  Equitable  Rights  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad,"  delivered  April  15th,  1880,  before  the 
House  Committee,  was  printed  for  general  circulation. 

Mr.  Billings  resigned  the  presidency  in  June,  1 881,  when 
a  controlling  interest  in  the  company's  stock  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Hei  ry  Viilard  and  the  capitalists  he  repre- 
sented, and  it  was  thought  desirable  by  them  to  secure 
a  unity  of  management  between  the  Oregon  trans- 
portation lines  directed  by  Mr.  Viilard  and  the  North- 
ern Pacific  sysl:m.  His  health  had  been  seriously 
impaired  by  hard  work,  and  he  was  glad  of  the  op- 
portunity  to  follow    the    advice    cf  his  physician  and 

He     continued     in     the    board, 

member    of   the    executive    com- 

Billings   left   the   presidency,  the 

had    Iv  en   recL'-arnized   as  vali  l 


take     a  long    rest, 

however,  and    as  a 

mittee.  Before    M*- 
plan    of 


reorganization 

by  courts  and  the  Government,  and  liad  become  a  co  .- 
plete  success.  Of  the  old  boiuls,  nearly  every  one  had  been 
exchanged  for  preferred  stock.  The  old  stockholders  had 
received  common  stock,  as  agreed,  and  the  proprietary- 
interest  holders  had  received  the  stock  provided  for  them. 
About  the  latf-er  there  had  been  litigation,  but  it  was  at 
an  end.  Th"  oreferre  i,  which  sold  once  as  low  as  $8  per 
share,  had  nocn  to  $80,  atid  the  old  bondholders,  who 


238 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


had  converted  their  bonds  into  preferred  stock,  and  held 
on,  could  sec  they  were  to  lose  nothing  of  principal 
and  interest.  The  common  stock,  which  had  sold  at 
$1.50,  was  quoted  at  about  §50.  Such  had  been  the 
change  of  opinion  towards  the  Company  that  capital  was 
ready  to  invest  in  its  bonds  and  stock,  and  arrangements 
had  been  made  to  provide  funds  for  its  completion.  Thus, 
at  last,  the  Northern  Pacific,  which  had  seen  so  many 
dark  days  in  its  history,  had  become  so  strong  in  its  po- 
sition, so  firmly  seated  in  the  faith  of  the  public.,  and 
so  sure  of  its  future,  that  its  steadfast  friends  felt  that 
their  patience  had  been  rewarded  and  their  faith  in  the 
great  enterprise  fully  justified. 

On  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Billings  his  associates  in  the 
directory  signified  their  appreciation  of  the  value  of  his 
services  by  the  formal  adoption  of  a  resolution  providing 
for  the  engraving  of  his  portrait  for  the  new  certificates 
of  stock,  and  in  other  ways. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


TEMPORARY   PRESIDENCY   OF  A.  II.  BARNEY. 

Mr.  Barney's  Birth  and  Education — Visit  to  Michigan — Early  Interest  in 
Transportation  Problems — Deputy  Collector  of  the  Port  of  Sacketts 
Harbor — The  Patriot  War — Engages  in  the  Commission  and  Shipping 
Business  at  Cleveland  and  Buffalo — Organizes  the  United  States. Express 
Company — A  Member  of  Several  Railroad  Purchasing  Syndicates — Di- 
rector and  Treasurer  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad — His  Connection 
with  the  Original  Interests  Agreement — Elected  President  in  iSSi  to 
Fill  a  Temporary  Vacancy — The  Agreement  with  the  Crow  Indians. 

M.^.  3lLLINGS'  resignation  of  the  presidency  was  has- 
te.ied,  >  wc  have  seen,  by  ill-health  and  the  desire  and 
r.ecr:  sity  for  rest.  Mr.  Villard  was  not  ready  to  take 
the  direction  of  the  Company's  affairs  into  his  own 
hands  before  the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  stock- 
holders, tc  b^  held  in  the  latter  part  of  the  ensuing 
September.  It  was  accordingly  determined  in  the 
board  that  A.  H.  Barney,  long  a  director  and  one  of 
the  participants  in  the  Original  Interests  Agreement  of 
1867,  should  act  as  president  to  fill  the  vacancy,  and 
that  Thomas  F.  Oakes,  who  had  just  come  into  the 
board  to  repres.^nt  the  Villard  interest,  should  be  chosen 
vice-president,  a^d  enter  at  once  upon  the  executive 
duties  of  th.  ofikc,  which  included  the  prosecution  of 
the  constr  cilon  vork  on  the  line  and  the  general  di- 
rection of  tiie  t:..f(ic  and  land  departments. 

Mr.  Bj.ney  v.. to  u»orn  in  Ellisburg,  Jefferson  County, 
New  Yjrk,  in  18 16 — the  youngest  son  of  John  Barney, 
who  emigrated  from  Brattlcboro,  Vermont,  in  1800.  He 
was  educated  at  the  Belleville  Academy  at  the  same  time 
that  Judge  G.  F.  Comstock,  late  of  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals, Joseph  Mullen,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and 


"^^ 


240 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Hiram  Barney,  late  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  were 
preparing  for  college  at  that  school.  At  the  age  of  nine- 
teen he  went  to  Michigan,  returning  the  following  year 
to  Jefferson  County,  New  York,  where  he  was  appointed 
deputy  collector  of  the  Port  of  Sacketts  Harbor.  At 
that  time  all  of  the  surplus  of  wheat,  corn,  flour,  pork, 
and  beef  of  North-eastern  New  York  was  shipped  by 
steam  and  sail  from  Sackett?  Harbor  to  Oswego,  and 
thence  by  canal  to  New  York.  During  his  term  of  office 
as  deputy  collector,  what  was  known  as  the  Patriot  War 
was  inaugurated — a  movement  first  organized  by  a  secret 
society,  formed  {q  •  die  purpose  of  enlisting  men  and 
money  for  an  invasi  "anada.     The  invaders  believed 

that  thousands  would  j  vheir  standard  as  soon  as  it  was 
planted  upon  Canadian  soil,  and  that  the  British  Prov- 
inces would  eagerly  welcome  the  opportunity  for  annexa- 
tion to  the  United  States.  They  were  immediately  de- 
feated. The  American  troops  guarding  the  frontier,  to 
prevent  reinforcements  from  joining  the  Patriots,  were 
largely  controlled  in  their  movements  by  the  collectors 
of  the  ports  on  the  Lakes,  and  the  young  collector  at 
Sacketts  Harbor  suddenly  found  his  post  one  of  great 
importance. 

In  1843  Mr.  Barney's  brother,  D.  N.  Barney,  and  him- 
self formed  a  copartnership  with  Eldridge  Merrick,  of 
Clayton,  Jefferson  County,  for  a  general  forwarding  and 
commission  business,  purchasing  timber  and  staves,  and 
shipping  them  to  Quebec  and  Liverpool  for  a  market. 
At  that  time  Mr.  Merrick  owned  a  large  fleet  of  vessels, 
which  were  sold  to  the  firm,  and  a  business  house  was 
opened  at  Cleveland,  Oiiio,  under  the  name  of  D.  N. 
Barney  &  Co.  The  firm  v/ere  the  owners  of  about 
twenty  sailing  vessels  ar:d  two  steamers,  the  Chesa- 
peake and  Empire.  The  Empire  was  the  largest  steamer 
ever  run  upon   the   Lakes   up   to   that   time,   and   was 


Drk,  were 
:  of  nine- 
ing  year 
^pointed 
oor.  At 
ur,  pork, 
pped  by 
igo,  and 

of  office 
riot  War 

a  secret 
lien  and 
believed 
as  it  was 
ill  Prov- 

annexa- 
itely  dc- 
ntier,  to 
)ts,  were 
ollectors 
ector  at 
of  great 

nd  him- 
rrick,  of 
ling  and 
ves,  and 

market. 

vessels, 
use  was 
f  D.  N. 
f  about 
Chesa- 
steamcr 
,nd   was 


Lake  Pend  d'  Oreille] 'Idaho. 


TEMPORARY  PRESIDENCY  OF  A.  H.  BARNEY.     24I 


the  first  modeled  after  the  sharp  steamers,  fore  and 
aft,  that  were  then  running  between  New  York  and 
Albany.  After  years  of  successful  business,  D.  N.  Bar- 
ney removed  to  Buffalo,  establishing  there  the  house 
of  D.  N.  Barney  &  Co.,  and  also  organizing  the  Bank  of 
Lake  Erie.  J.  B.  Waring  was  admitted  as  a  member  of 
the  firm  at  Cleveland,  doing  business  under  the  name  of 
Barney,  Waring  &  Co.  D.  N.  Barney  and  E.  G.  Merrick 
were  the  Company,  and  A.  H.  Barney  was  the  senior 
partner  of  the  Cleveland  house.  During  the  second 
year  of  the  copartnership,  Mr.  Barney  invented  and  con- 
structed the  first  grain  warehouse  built  of  plank,  upon 
a  model  plan  that  has  since  been  followed  in  the  construc- 
tion of  all  grain  warehouses  of  large  dimensions  in  this 
country.  The  Buffalo  and  Cleveland  branches  of  the 
firm  did  an  extremely  profitable  business,  measured  by 
the  standard  of  profits  of  those  days. 

Mr.  Waring  withdrew  from  the  Cleveland  and  Buffalo 
copartnerships,  and  D.  N.  Barney  removed  to  New  York, 
where  soon  after  he  became  largely  interested  in  the  ex- 
press business.  In  1854  he  organized  the  United  States 
Express  Company,  and  was  elected  its  president.  Soon 
thereafter  he  was  elected  president  of  Wells,  Fargo  & 
Co.'s  Express,  doing  business  between  New  York  and 
San  Francisco  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  After 
two  or  three  years  of  profitable  business,  the  carrying 
trade  upon  the  Lakes  became  unsatisfactory,  and  A. 
H.  Barney  sold  the  smaller  vessels  of  his  firm,  loaded 
the  larger  vessels  with  American  timber,  staves,  oil-cake, 
and  such  other  articles  as  he  believed  could  be  sold  at  a 
profit,  and  sent  them  with  their  cargoes  to  England.  In 
company  with  D.  C.  Pierce,  he  built  the  brigs  Kershaw 
and  D.  C.  Pierce,  and  sent  them  with  the  others  to  Eng- 
land for  a  market.  At  the  English  ports  the  vessels  ob- 
tained cargoes  for  the  Danube.  The  trade  did  not  prove 
16 


24."^ 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


I'^aisfeii 


very  profitable.  Some  of  the  vessels  were  sold  in  Eng- 
land, and  some  returned  to  the  Lakes.  The  D.  C.  Pierce 
was  taken  by  a  Confederate  cruiser  during  the  Civil  War, 
and  destroyed. 

In  1854  Mr.  Barney  was  elected  vice-president  of  the 
United  States  Express  Company,  and  took  upon  himself 
the  entire  executive  management.  He  was  one  of  the 
parties  who  purchased  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad,  and  elected  W.  G.  Fargo 
vice-president.  After  about  a  year,  two  of  the  parties 
sold  their  stock  to  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  which  gave 
him,  with  the  stock  he  then  held,  the  control  of  the  road. 
He  was  elected  president  and  immediately  doubled  the 
stock  of  the  road,  constructed  the  bridge  at  Albany,  and 
succeeded  thereafter  in  paying  regular  semi-annual  divi- 
dends. 

Mr.  Barney  was  one  of  a  small  party  that  purchased 
the  control  of  the  Cleveland  and  Toledo  Railroad.  He 
was  offered  the  presidency  of  the  road,  but  declined, 
and  secured  the  election  of  his  personal  friend  John  W. 
Newell.  Soon  after  the  road  was  consolidated  with  the 
Buffalo  and  Erie  and  Cleveland  and  Erie  roads  and  the 
Michigan  Southern,  making  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Lake  Shore  Railroad.  Mr.  Newell  was  elected  general 
manager,  and  has  held  that  position  until  the  present 
time.  In  October,  1862,  Mr.  Barney  was  one  of  a  party 
of  five  gentlemen  that  purchased  the  franchise  of  the 
Winona  and  St.  Peter  Railroad  of  Minnesota.  To  save 
the  charter,  ten  miles  of  road  were  to  be  constructed  be- 
fore the  first  day  of  January,  1863.  He  was  placed  in 
charge  of  construction.  The  road  ran  through  mount- 
ains and  roclcs,  and  over  deep  ravines,  one  of  which  re- 
qu: "'d  over  eight  hundred  feet  of  bridging,  forty  feet  in 
height.  Nevertheless,  the  ten  miles  were  completed,  and 
accepted  in  time  to  save  the  charter.     The  road  was  built 


TEMPORARY  PRESIDENCY  OF  A.  If.  BARXEY. 


243 


the  following  year  for  a  distance  of  sixty-two  miles, 
bonded,  and  then  sold  to  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern 
Railroad,  Mr.  Barney's  party  holding  the  bonds  at  the 
rate  of  $20,000  per  mile  on  the  sixty-two  miles  con- 
structed, and  the  title  of  the  lands  earned.  Mr.  Barney 
was  afterwards  one  of  a  syndicate  composing  what  was 
called  the  United  States  Telegraph  Company,  which 
purchased  the  control  of  the  Western  Union  and  of 
the  organization  called  the  Overland  Telegraph  Com- 
pany, with  a  franchise  to  construct  a  line  of  telegraph 
to  the  Pacific  coast.  All  these  companies  were  con- 
solidated, and  Wm.  Orton  was  made  president  of  the 
new  corporation,  which  preserve!^  the  name  of  Western 
Union.  In  1872  Mr.  Barney  joined  William  B.  Ogden, 
General  G.  W.  Cass,  J.  Gregory  Smith  and  others,  in  the 
Original  Interests  Agreement,  which  created  twelve  pro- 
prietary shares  controlling  the  franchises  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad.  In  1870  he  was  elected  a  director 
and  treasurer  of  the  Company.  He  resigned  both  positions 
in  April,  1873,  on  the  approach  of  the  financial  difficulties 
which  soon  afterwards  beset  the  Company  and  threw  it 
into  insolvency.  When  the  storm  had  passed  over  and 
better  times  came,  he  was  a  member  of  the  syndicate  that 
furnished  the  money  to  construct  the  Missouri  and  Pend 
d'Oreille  Division.  In  1881  he  again  became  a  director  in 
the  Nonhern  Pacific  Company,  and  was  appointed  chair- 
man of  the  finance  committee,  and,  in  connection  with 
President  Billings,  negotiated  the  general  mortgage  loan 
which  ensured  the  further  construction  of  the  road.  He 
was  also  chairman  of  a  special  committee  on  lands,  and 
succeeded  in  persuading  the  board  to  advance  the  price  of 
theCompany'slandseast  of  the  Missouri  and  on  the  Pacific 
slope  from  $2.60  to  $4  per  acre.  The  most  important 
proceeding  during  his  brief  term  as  president  was  the  ne- 
gotiation with  the  Crow  Indians    for  the  right  of  way 


244 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


through  their  reservation,  fronting  on  the  Yellowstone 
River  for  a  distance  of  over  two  hundred  miles.  The 
Company  had  the  right  under  its  charter  to  build  through 
the  reservation,  and  the  Interior  Department  recognized 
that  right,  but  the  Company  thought  it  wise  to  satisfy  the 
Indians  by  the  payment  of  $25,000.  Mr.  Barney  was  suc- 
ceeded as  president  by  Henry  Villard,  on  September  1 5th, 
1881,  but  remained  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors. 


-%l 


owstonc 
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ircctors. 


o 

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u 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

HENRY  VILLARD  AS  JOURNALIST  AND  RAILWAY  MANAGER. 


a 


3 

8 
u 


Mr.  Villard's  Dirth  anil  Education  in  Germany — He  Emigrates  to  the  United 
Slates  at  the  Age  of  i3-:-Studics  Law  and  ^^'rites  for  tlic  German  Papers 
— Masters  tlic  English  Lanfjiiage  and  becomes  ajonrnalist — Goes  to  the 
I'iUe's  Peak  Gold  Mines — His  Career  as  a  War  Correspondent  from  i86l 
to  1S64 — Secretary  of  the  American  Social  Science  Association — Visits  to 
Europe — Returns  to  America  to  Represent  German  I5ondholders  of  De- 
faultincr  Railronds — Receiver  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad — President 
of  the  Oregon  ami  California  Railroad — Actjuires  Control  of  the  Oregon 
Steamship  Company  and  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company — Prop- 
osition to  the  T/nion  Pacific  Company — Organization  of  the  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company — Prosecution  of  ^Ir.  Villard's  General 
Transportation  Plan. 

Henry  Villard  was  born  in  the  old  imperial  city  of 
Spcyer,  on  the  Rhine,  in  1835,  and  was  the  second  of 
three  children,  the  other  two  being  sisters.  His  father 
was  in  the  judicial  branch  of  the  civil  service  of  Bavaria, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  birth  was  stationed  in  a  small  town 
near  Speyer.  The  father  received  successive  promotions, 
necessitating  frequent  changes  of  habitation  in  Rhenish 
Bavaria.  He  finally  became  presiding  judge  of  the  dis- 
trict court  in  the  town  of  Zweibrilcken,  where  the  son 
spent  the  greater  portion  of  his  childhood,  from  1839  ^^ 
1849.  ^"  the  interval  between  his  sixth  and  eighth  years 
he  attended  the  public  elementary  school  in  that  town, 
and  then  at  the  age  of  eight  entered  the  Latin  school, 
or  Gymnasium,  in  which  he  remained  for  six  years,  going 
through  its  several  classes.  The  revolutionary  outbreak, 
which  temporarily  disturbed  not  only  public,  but  also 
school  life,  in  Southern  Germany  in  1848  and  1849,  ^^' 
cided  his  father  to  send  him  for  a  time  to  a  French  college 
at  Pfalzbourg,  in  Lorraine.    There  he  remained  a  year, 


s"!^' ;  ' 


246 


NORTHEPN  PACIFIC  KAILROAD. 


and  ill  the  fall  of  1850  entered  the  Gymnasium  at  Spcyer, 
from  which  Jic  graduated  in  the  summer  of  1852.  He 
next  visited  the  universities  of  Munich  and  Wurzburg. 

In  consequence  of  the  poHtical  oppression,  and  the  rev- 
olutionary agitation  growing  out  of  it,  which  prevailed  in 
Germany  in  1S31  and  1832,  an  uncle  and  several  brothers 
of  his  father  (the  former  of  whom  held  a  high  judicial 
position)  emigrated  in  those  years  to  the  United  States, 
settling  near  St.  Louis,  in  and  about  the  town  now  known 
as  Belleville,  St.  Clair  County,  Illinois.  They  were  fol- 
lowed by  members  of  other  branches  of  the  family,  so 
that  gradually  the  greater  number  of  relatives  on  his 
father's  side  became  settled  in  the  United  States.  Through 
the  regular  correspondence  of  these  relatives,  he  became 
much  interested  in  this  country,  and  being  possessed  of  a 
lively  imagination  and  a  restless  temperament,  he  made  up 
his  mind,  while  pursuing  his  University  studies,  to  seek  his 
fortune  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  He  accordingly  came 
to  America  in  October,  1853.  It  was  his  intention  at  once 
to  seek  his  rek'tives  in  Illinois;  but,  from  a  variety  of 
circumstances,  he  did  not  carry  out  this  purpose  for  a 
year.  Ho  remained  some  time  in  New  York,  and  then 
found  his  way  to  Chicago,  whence  in  November,  1854,  he 
went  to  St.  Louis,  and  thence  to  Belleville,  spending  the 
winter  on  a  large  farm  belonging  to  one  of  his  father's 
brothers,  near  Belleville.  While  in  Belleville  he  amused 
himself  by  writing  occasional  contr'ibutions  to  the  local 
German  paper,  which  were  so  favorably  received  by  the 
editor  as  to  impress  him  with  the  belief  that  he  might 
earn  his  bread  as  a  journalist.  In  the  spring  he  decided 
to  read  law,  and  with  that  purpose  entered  an  attorney's 
office  in  Belleville.  He  soon  found,  from  the  fact  that 
Belleville  was  almost  exclusively  inhabited  by  Germans, 
and  only  the  German  language  was  used  in  the  society  in 
which  he  moved,  that  he  would  not  readily  acquire  the 


HEKRY    VILLA RD  AS   RAILIVAY  MAJVAGER. 


247 


English  language  if  he  remained  there.  Througli  the 
influence  of  a  relative  he  obtained  an  opportunity  to 
continue  his  law  studies  in  Peoria,  Illinois.  After  re- 
maining a  few  months  there,  the  recollection  of  his 
former  stay  in  Chicago  induced  him  to  return  to  that 
city,  which  he  looked  upon  as  a  promising  field  for  a 
young  man. 

The  dry  methods  by  which  he  was  to  acquire  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  did  not  attract  the  young  man,  but 
rr^her  repelled  him,  and  the  recollection  of  his  journal- 
istic elTorts  iii  Belleville  led  him  to  try  his  hand  at  writing 
letters  for  the  newspapers.  He  first  sent  his  letters, 
descriptive  of  Chicago  and  the  West,  to  some  German 
weeklies  in  New  York,  and  they  were  readily  accepted. 
He  continued  his  journalistic  labors  at  various  western 
points,  but  the  conviction  settled  upon  him  that  the 
German  press  offered  but  a  limited  opening  for  success, 
and  that  if  he  wished  to  achieve  distinction,  he  could  only 
do  so  by  qualifying  himself  to  become  a  writer  for  the 
English  press.  He  had  acquired  the  verbal  use  of  the  Eng- 
lish language  with  comparative  rapidity,  but  still  had  very 
little  practice  in  writing  it.  He  worked  very  hard  to  perfect 
himself  in  the  written  use  of  it,  however,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1858  he  first  sought  admission  to  the  columns  of  eastern 
papers  printed  in  the  English  language.  The  result  was 
an  engagement  to  report  the  course  of  the  political 
campaign  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  in  Illinois,  in  the 
summer  of  1858.  Mr.  Villard  traveled  over  the  State  till 
late  in  the  fall  with  the  two  candidates,  reporting  their 
joint  discussions.  Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  campaign 
he  proceeded  to  Indianapolis  to  report  the  proceedings  of 
the  Indiana  Legislature,  in  which  an  exciting  senatorial 
contest  was  in  progress,  and  wrote  letters  to  the  Cincin- 
nati Commercial  and  other  papers  from  that  point.  He 
was  expelled  from  the  reporters'  gallery  of  the  Indiana 


248 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


,;i! 


House  on  account  of  some  severe  comments  in  his  letters 
on  the  conduct  of  one  of  the  members.  During  the  same 
winter  he  spent  some  time  at  Springfield,  the  capital  of 
Illinois,  writing  letters  about  the  Legislative  proceedings 
there. 

In  the  spring  of  1859  ^^''-  Villard  went  to  Cincinnati, 
and  made  an  engagement  with  the  editor  of  the  Commer- 
cial \o  go  to  the  newly-discovered  .gold  region  of  Colo- 
rado, and  write  a  series  of  letters  for  that  paper.  He 
reached  Leavenworth  in  time  to  take  passage  on  the  fi'"-^ 
stage  across  the  plains,  run  by  the  Leavenworth  ; 
Pike's  Peak  Express  Company,  which  left  early  in  April 
for  Denver.  He  explored  during  the  summer  the  Ter- 
ritory of  Colorado,  as  far  as  it  was  accessible  at  that 
time — a  portion  of  the  time  in  company  with  Horace 
Greeley  and  Albert  D.  Richardson,  who  visited  the  Ter- 
ritory that  summer,  the  former  being  on  his  way  over- 
land to  California.  He  made  two  trips  to  the  Missouri 
River  that  summer,  and  on  finally  leaving  Colorado, 
started  late  in  November  with  a  party  on  horseback  for 
the  East.  The  party  were  caught  in  violent  snow-storms, 
and  after  severe  privations,  reached  the  settlements  of 
Eastern  Kansas.  Mr.  Villard  spent  the  winter  of  1859- 
60  in  St.  Louis  preparing  for  publication  a  volume,  which 
was  issued  the  next  spring,  on  the  new  Pike's  Peak 
mining  region,  compiled  chiefly  from  his  letters  in  the 
Commercial. 

Mr.  Villard  attended  the  National  Convention  at  Chi- 
cago which  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for  President, 
and  spent  the  summer  and  fall  of  i860  in  active  work  as 
a  correspondent,  traveling,  attending  mass-meetings,  and 
reporting  the  progress  of  the  political  campaign  in  the 
West.  Late  in  the  fall  he  found  time  to  work  up  statis- 
tics concerning  the  extent  of  the  trade  across  the  plains  to 
Colorado  and  New  Mexico,  with  a  view  of  influencing  the 


HENRY   VILLA  RD  AS  RAIL  WAY  MANAGER. 


249 


course  of  the  projected  railroad  to  the  Pacific,  which  were 
published  in  the  New  York  Herald  in  the  fall  of  i860. 
Mr.  Frederick  Hudson,  then  managing  editor  of  the 
Herald,  learning  of  Mr.  Villard's  personal  acquaintance 
with  Lincoln,  engaged  him  to  go  to  Springfield  and  spend 
there  the  time  between  the  election  in  November  and  the 
departure  of  the  new  President  for  Washington  in  the 
following  February,  in  observing  the  movements  of  poli- 
ticians. He  telegraphed  his  reports  daily  to  the  Herald, 
and  under  the  rules  of  the  Associated  Press  they  were 
sent  to  the  papers  throughout  the  country.  Mr.  Villard 
was  enabled  to  get  an  inside  view  of  the  intrigues  for 
cabinet  positions,  and  for  the  control  of  the  policy  of  the 
new  administration.  Ey  invitation  of  Mr.  Lincoln  he 
accompanied  him  as  far  as  New  York,  on  his  journey 
to  Washington.  After  spending  a  few  days  at  New  York, 
he  went  to  Washington,  and  established  himself  there 
as  a  political  correspondent  of  eastern  and  western 
papers,  his  personal  acquaintance  with  the  President  giv- 
ing him  a  conspicuous  position  at  once  among  the 
newspaper  correspondents  stationed  at  the  capital. 

He  remained  in  Washington  as  a  correspondent  until 
the  first  Bull  Run  campaign,  when  he  accompanied  the 
army  to  the  field,  and  in  its  retreat  after  the  battle.  After 
returning  to  Washington,  he  proceeded  to  the  West,  and 
joined  the  forces  in  Kentucky  under  the  command  of 
General  Buell,  whose  campaign  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Mississippi  and  Alabama  he  witnessed  till  the  fall  of  1862. 
He  next  joined  the  army  of  the  Potomac  and  reported 
the  unfortunate  campaign  of  General  Burnside,  which 
culminated  in  the  disastrous  battle  of  Fredericksburg. 
He  then  joined  the  Hilton  Head  expedition  to  South 
Carolina,  and  remained  there  three  months.  When  the  first 
attack  was  made  ui^on  Charleston  in  April,  1863,  Mr. 
Villard  was  on  Admiral  Dupont's  flag-ship  the  Ironsides, 
17 


■^ 


25b 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


and  was  the  only  correspondent  in  the  battle.     He  went 
North  immediately  after  the  engagement. 

His  success  at  Charleston  earned  him  a  three-weeks' 
leave  of  absence,  during  which  he  went  to  Boston,  and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  lady  who  afterwards  became 
his  wife.  Miss  Fanny  Garrison,  a  daughter  of  the  great 
anti-slavery  agitator  and  leader,  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 
He  again  went  West,  joining  General  Rosecrans.  Here 
he  became  acquainted  with  General  Garfield,  who  at  that 
time  was  Rosecrans'  chief  of  staff.  While  with  the  army  in 
Tennessee,  he  contracted  a  severe  malarial  fever  which 
came  near  costing  him  his  life,  and  incapacitated  him  for 
along  time  from  work  of  any  kind.  Going  to  the  Yellow 
Springs  of  Ohio,  and  afterwards  to  Cincinnati,  he  finally 
became  convalescent,  and  hastened  back  to  the  field,  re 
joining  Rosecrans  at  Chattanooga,  before  the  battle  of 
Chickamauga.  From  Chattanooga  he  went  to  Washing- 
ton, and,  in  connection  with  Horace  White  and  Adams  S. 
Hill,  started  a  newspaper  correspondence  bureau,  to  fur- 
nish news  from  the  capital,  and  A'om  the  seat  of  war  in 
Virginia,  to  a  combination  of  important  papers  outside 
the  New  York  Associated  Press.  This  was  the  first  in- 
stance of  an  arrangement,  which  afterwards  became  quite 
common  in  Washington,  by  which  a  number  of  papers  in 
cities  widely  distant  from  each  other  are  served  with  the 
same  dispatches  and  letters  from  important  news  centres. 
Mr.  Villard's  combination  consisted  of  the  Boston  Adver- 
tiser, Springfield  Republican,  Cincinnati  Couuncrcial,  Chicago 
Tribune,  and  St,  Louis  Democrat.  This  was  in  December, 
1863.  He  remained  at  Washington  till  Grant  began  the 
Wilderness  campaign,  when  he  took  the  field  at  Culpepper 
Court  House  as  a  correspondent,  representing  the  news 
bureau  above  referred  to,  and  witnessed  the  battles  of  the 
campaign,  and  the  siege  of  Petersburg. 

In  September,  1864,  Mr.  Villard  returned  to  Europe  for 


HENRY   VILLA RD  AS  RAILWAY  MANAGER. 


251 


He  went 

e-wecks' 
ton,  and 
3  became 
he  great 
jrarrison. 
s.    Here 

0  at  that 
e  army  in 
er  which 

1  him  for 
c  Yellow 
le  finally 

field,  re 
battle  of 
kVashing- 
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u,  to  fur- 
if  war  in 
outside 
first  in- 
me  quite 
capers  in 
with  the 
centres. 
n  Adi'cr- 
f,  Chicago 
ccember, 
cgan  the 
ulpepper 
the  news 
cs  of  the 

I  rope  for 


the  first  time  since  coming  to  this  country,  and  visited  his 
relatives  in  Germany.  On  the  1st  of  April,  1865,  he  sailed 
from  Liverpool,  designing  to  take  part  in  the  spring  cam- 
paign in  Virginia.  On  landing  at  Boston  he  learned  of 
the  collapse  of  the  rebellion,  and  of  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln.  For  a  time  he  furnished  correspond- 
ence from  the  East  to  the  Chicago  Tribune,  of  which  his 
former  associate,  Horace  White,  had  become  the  manag- 
ing editor.  Going  to  Washington,  he  spent  some  weeks 
in  the  preparation  of  the  mortality  statistics  of  the  war, 
from  the  records  of  the  Government  archives,  intending 
to  make  them  the  basis  of  a  book,  which,  however,  was 
not  completed. 

Mr.  Villard  was  married  in  Boston,  on  January  3d,  1866. 
Returning  soon  after  to  W'ashington,  he  wrote  for  the 
Chicago  Tribune  during  that  winter.  In  July,  1866,  he 
accepted  an  offer  from  the  N'cza  York  Tribune  to  go  to 
Europe  and  report  the  Austro-Prussian  war,  which  had 
then  just  broken  out.  By  the  time  he  had  crossed  the 
Atlantic,  however,  the  six  weeks'  struggle  had  come  to  a 
close,  and  there  was  nothing  left  for  him  to  do  but  to  visit 
the  battle-grounds  of  Koeniggratz  and  Sadowa,  and  also 
the  cities  of  Vienna  and  Berlin,  to  observe  the  effects  of 
the  war,  and  the  political  changes  resulting  from  it.  He 
stayed  in  Germany  till  April,  1867,  and  then  went  to 
Paris  to  furnish  correspondence  from  the  International 
Exhibition,  remaining  till  its  close.  He  was  joined  in 
June,  1867,  by  hi.  father-in-law,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
who  soon  afterwards  made  a  tour  through  Great  Britain, 
in  the  course  of  which  distinguished  honors  were  showered 
upon  him  as  the  leading  representative  of  the  anti-slavery 
movement  in  America,  which  had  brought  about  the  free- 
dom of  the  colored  race  in  the  Southern  States. 

From  Paris  Mr.  Villard  went  to  Switzerland,  and  after- 
wards to  Munich,  to  attend  the  death-bed  of  his   father, 


.'<;2 


NOJ^TIIEKN'  PACIFIC  RAILROAD, 


who  had  in  recent  years  become  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Kingdom  of  Bavaria.  The  following  winter 
he  spent  in  Paris,  writing  letters  for  the  Chicago  Tribune. 
In  the  winter  of  1868,  he  made  a  journey,  in  the  interest 
of  that  paper,  to  visit  John  Stuart  Mill  at  Avignon  and 
to  Italy  to  describe  the  eruption  of  Mount  Vesuvius. 
He  returned  in  June  to  the  United  States,  where,  for  a  time 
he  was  engaged  in  writing  editorial  articles  for  the  Boston 
Advertiser.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was  elected  Secretary 
of  the  American  Social  Science  Association,  to  which  he 
devoted  his  energies  until  1870.  The  war  of  1870  between 
France  and  Germany  greatly  interested  him,  and  he  went 
back  to  his  native  country,  partly  to  observe  the  struggle, 
and  partly  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  which  was  con- 
siderably impaired.  Returning  to  America  in  February, 
1871,  he  resumed  his  position  as  Secretary  of  the  Ameri- 
can Social  Science  Association.  In  September  of  the 
same  year  he  again  went  to  Europe,  and  renjained  till 
April,  1874.  It  was  during  this  period  that  his  connec- 
tion with  railroad  enterprises  began.  While  living  at 
Wiesbaden,  he  interested  himself  in  the  negotiation  of 
American  securities  in  Germany,  and  became  acquainted 
with  leading  bankers  in  Frankfort  and  Berlin.  After  the 
financial  panic  of  1073,  many  American  railroad  com- 
panies became  bankrupt,  and  default  was  made  in  the  pay- 
ment of  the  interest  on  their  bonds  held  in  Germany. 
Committees  were  organized  for  the  protection  of  the 
bondholders.  Mr.  Villard  was  asked  to  join  several  of 
these  committees.  Consenting,  after  some  hesitation  on 
account  of  the  condition  of  his  health,  he  soon  found 
that  most  of  the  work  was  thrown  upon  his  shoulders, 
because  of  his  knowledge  of  the  English  language,  and  of 
American  affairs.  In  April,  1874,  he  returned  to  America 
to  represent  the  interests  of  his  constituents.  His  special 
purpose  was  to  go  to  Oregon  and  close  a  contract,  the  pre- 


c  Supreme 
ing  winter 
fi?  Tribune. 
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,  for  a  time 
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M 


HEiXRY    VILLARD  AS  RAILWAY  MAX  ACER. 


'53 


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ii 

liminarics  of  u'hich  had  been  arranged  at  Frankfort  by  a 
special  agent  sent  thereby  Ben.  Holladay,  the  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Oregon  and  California  Railroad  Company, 
which  Company  had  made  default  on  its  first  mortgage 
bonds  in  the  summer  of  1873.  He  took  with  liim  a 
competent  German  engineer,  R.  Koehler,  who  afterwards 
became  general  manager  of  the  Company.  On  his  way  to 
the  Pacific  coast,  Mr.  Villard,  in  connection  with  his  com- 
panion, examined  a  number  of  western  railroads. 

He  reached  Oregon  in  August  of  1874,  and  was  at  once 
very  much  impressed  with  the  beauty  of  the  scenery  and 
the  great  natural  resources  of  the  country.  He  was 
struck,  moreover,  with  the  peculiar  natural  divisions  of 
the  country,  which  clearly  defined  and  prescribed  the  only 
possible  transportation  lines.  He  observed  that  West- 
ern Oregon  consists  mainly  of  one  great  valley,  that  of 
the  Willamette  River,  and  that  Eastern  Oregon  and  East- 
ern Washington  are  only  accessible,  owing  to  the  impass- 
able character  of  the  Cascade  Range — the  continuation  ol 
the  Sierra  Nevada  of  California — by  the  Columbia  River. 
He  perceived  that  the  control  by  transportation  lines  of 
the  valleys  of  these  two  rivers  would  insure  the  substan- 
tial control  of  the  traffic  of  the  entire  vast  region  watered 
by  them  and  their  tributaries.  In  the  light  of  the  natural 
conditions  he  conceived  the  plans,  which  he  found  the  op- 
portunity to  carry  out,  however,  only  in  the  course  of  years. 

The  Oregon  and  California  and  the  Oregon  Central 
Railroad  Companies,  on  behalf  of  whose  mortgage  cred- 
itors Mr.  Villard  visited  Oregon,  had  already  virtual 
possession  of  the  Willamette  Valley  by  their  existing  lines 
on  each  side  of  the  river.  It  happened,  moreover,  that 
the  same  banks  and  bankers  that  had  negotiated  in  Eu- 
rope the  bonds  of  the  Oregon  and  California  Railroad 
Company  had  also  a  hold  as  mortgage  creditors  upon  the 
steamer  line,  then  forming  the  only  connection   between 


254 


NORTHERN-  PACfl'IC  RAILROAD. 


Oregon  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  Mr.  Villard,  of  course, 
saw  the  desirability  of  the  control  of  this  outlet  by  sea  in 
combination  with  that  of  the  interior  transportation  lines. 
His  connection  with  the  controlling  European  capitalists 
naturally  opened  the  way  for  the  realization  of  his  plans. 

The  contract  to  close  which  Mr,  Villard  went  to  Ore- 
gon was  a  compromise  between  the  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia Railroad  Company  and  the  bondholders,  based  on  a 
reduction  of  the  current  interest  charge.  In  less  than  a  year 
it  became  apparent  that  the  Company  would  not  be  able 
to  comply  with  the  agreement,  in  consequence  of  which 
Mr.  Villard  was  deputed  to  proceed  again  to  the 
United  States,  and  to  enter  into  a  new  arrangement,  under 
which  the  Company  was  to  surrender  absolutely  the  con- 
trol of  the  properties  to  the  bondholders.  This  was 
effected,  and  Mr.  Villard  thereupon  became  president  of 
the  Oregon  and  California  Railroad  Company  and  the 
Oregon  Steamship  Company,  in  1875. 

In  1873  Mr.  Villard  was  also  elected  a  member  of  a 
committee  at  Frankfort-on-thc-Main,  representing  the 
bondholders  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railway  Company, 
which  the  crisis  of  that  year  had  also  forced  to  make  de- 
fault in  the  payment  of  interest  on  its  bonds.  A  com- 
promise was  entered  into  between  the  Company  and  the 
committee  under  which  the  interest  on  the  bonds  was  to 
be  funded  for  three  years.  In  1876  the  Company  was 
unable  to  resume  payment  of  interest,  and  requested  Mr. 
Villard  to  act  as  one  of  the  receivers,  whose  appointment 
then  became  necessary.  On  receiving  the  assent  of  the 
Frankfort  committee  of  bondholders,  he  accepted  the 
position  in  connection  with  Carlos  S.  Greeley,  of  St. 
Louis.  He  continued  in  that  capacity  until  the  fall  of 
1878,  when  both  receivers  were  removed  by  order  of  the 
court  which  had  appointed  them.  The  cause  of  their  re- 
moval was  the  discord  that  had  broken  out  between  them. 


HENRY   VILLA KD  AS  RAILWAY  MANAGER. 


2';  5 


As  stated,  Mr.  Villardhad  been  originally  appointed  as  the 
representative  of  the  mortgage  creditors,  and  Greeley  as 
that  of  the  Company.  Mr.  Villard  felt  in  duty  bound  to 
protect,  in  his  official  capacity,  the  interests  of  his  con- 
stituents, and  to  prevent  unreasonable  and  unnecessary 
sacrifices  of  the  principal  and  interest  of  their  bonds.  The 
directors  of  the  Company,  from  financial  straits,  entered 
into  a  sort  of  alliance  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railway 
Company,  or,  rather,  its  then  controlling  spirit.  Jay  Gould, 
who  soon  managed  to  have  matters  entirely  his  own  way 
in  the  Kansas  Pacific.  He  made  several  contracts  with 
the  New  York  committee,  representing  the  Kansas  Pacific 
bondholders,  but  broke  them  as  fast  as  they  were  made, 
in  the  hope  of  frightening  the  bondholders  into  larger 
concessions.  Having  failed  to  win  Mr.  Villard  over  to 
his  plans,  he  made  war  upon  him  by  abuse  and  slander, 
but  Mr.  Villard  stood  resolutely  by  the  bondholders.  A 
proti acted  struggle  ensued  in  the  courts,  the  outcome  of 
which  was  that  the  bondholders  obtained  much  more 
than  under  the  successive  compromises  which  Gould  had 
disregarded.  When  Mr.  Villard  was  appointed  receiver, 
the  price  of  the  bonds,  in  whose  behalf  the  foreclosure 
suit  had  been  commenced,  was  about  40 ;  when  the  set- 
tlement with  the  Company  was  made,  they  stood  much 
above  par.  This  result  gave  him  great  prestige,  which 
proved  of  much  advantage  to  him  in  his  subsequent 
financial  enterprises. 

He  held  fast  to  his  general  project  of  uniting  all  the 
transportation  lines  of  Oregon,  both  rail  and  water, 
under  one  control,  but  was  not  able  to  make  much  prog- 
ress towards  the  execution  of  the  plan  until  1879,  owing 
to  the  great  depression  in  financial  and  industrial  affairs 
prevailing  in  Europe  as  well  as  the  United  States.  His 
first  effort  was  to  obtain  money  to  replace  with  new 
steamers  the  old  vessels  of  the  Oregon  Steamship  Com- 


256 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


pany,  and  to  continue  the  construction  of  the  Oregon  and 
California  Railroad.  He  did  not  succeed  in  the  latter 
direction,  but  gradually  secured  the  funds  for  new  iron 
steamships.  This  had  hardly  been  accomplished  when 
an  opposition  line  was  started,  which  so  cut  down  the 
earnings  of  the  Company  that  its  European  owners  be- 
came discouraged,  and  urged  Mr.  Villard  to  find  American 
purchasers  for  it  if  possible.  He  made  up  a  syndicate 
composed  of  a  small  number  of  personal  friends,  who 
had  been  with  him  in  other  enterprises,  and  bought  the 
properties  of  the  Company  for  it  at  a  moderate  price. 

Mr.  Villard's  next  step  was  in  the  direction  of  securing 
for  Oregon  what  he  thought  would  be  of  the  greatest 
benefit  to  all  its  interests — railroad  communication  with 
the  East.  He  did  not  at  first  look  to  the  Northern  Pacific 
line  for  this,  because  of  its  discredited  condition,  but 
turned  his  attention  to  a  connection  with  the  Union 
Pacific  line.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  the  parties 
controlling  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  Company.  He 
knew  that  that  Company  originally  intended  building  a 
line  to  Oregon,  and  that  it  had  surveyed  a  line  ten  years 
before.  He  put  himself  in  communication  with  the 
managers  of  the  Union  Pacific,  and  made  a  formal  propo- 
sition to  them  to  join  him  in  carrying  out  his  general 
plan.  He  offered  to  raise  half  the  money  that  he  thought 
necessary  for  it,  if  they  would  raise  the  other  half.  An 
agreement  was  reached  and  executed  ;  a  million  of  dollars 
was  subscribed  as  a  start,  and  Mr.  Villard  left  with  the 
subscription  paper  in  his  pocket  for  Oregon  in  April, 
1879. 

His  first  purpose  was  to  occupy  one  or  the  other  bank 
of  the  Columbia  River,  with  a  view  to  the  construction  of 
an  extension  of  the  Union  Pacific  to  Portland,  ^ 
He   had   already,  the   year  before,  instituted  a  oiy 

examination  of  the  banks  of  the  Columbia  River,     ith  a 


HENRY   VILLARD  AS  RAILWAY  MANAGER. 


257 


view  to  ascertaining  the  character  and  cost  of  the  re- 
quisite work.  The  engineer  in  charge  had  made  a  rather 
unfavorable  report  as  to  the  possibility  of  a  road  on  the 
south  bank  of  the  river.  Hence,  on  arriving  at  Portland, 
Mr.  Villard  put  another  surveying  party  in  the  field  to 
examine  the  north  bank.  The  result  was  also  discourufr- 
ing,  in  that  it  indicated  the  great  difficulty  and  cost  of  a 
line  on  that  side  likewise. 

At  that  time  the  transportation  business  of  the  Col- 
umbia Valley  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  Company,  and  carried  on  by  separate 
fleets  of  steamboats,  running  respectively  on  the  lower, 
middle,  and  upper  Columbia,  and  connecting  with  each 
other  by  means  of  portage  railroads  around  the  principal 
natural  obstructions  to  the  navigation  of  the  river  at  the 
Cascades  and  the  Dalles.  The  Company  was  then  just 
entering  upon  a  stage  of  great  prosperity  in  consequence 
of  the  increase  of  down  river  freights  b/  the  develop- 
ment of  wheat  farming  on  a  large  scale  in  the  upper 
Columbia  country.  Its  stock  was  worth  about  forty 
cents  on  the  dollar  in  the  spring  of  1879.  A  controlling 
interest  in  its  stock  had  been  purchased  in  1872,  as  has 
been  stated  in  a  former  chapter,  by  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company,  and  on  the  bankruptcy  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co., 
tills  stock,  having  been  largely  hypothecated  for  loans, 
was  relinquished  to  creditors  of  the  railroad,  or  divided 
as  an  asset  among  the  creditors  of  the  banking  firm,  and 
thus  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  large  number  of  holders. 
The  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  was  managed 
by  Captain  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  S.  G.  Reed,  and  R>  R. 
Thompson,  all  then  residents  of  Portland.  Mr.  Villard 
the  ught  it  best  to  see  first  the  upper  Columbia  country, 
and  especially  the  Walla  Walla  region,  before  deciding 
lefinitely  upon  his  course.  His  observations  on  the  trip 
resulted  in  the  conclusion  that  it  would  be  wisest  to  ob- 
17 


IP' 


258 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


tain,  first  of  all,  control  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Naviga- 
tion Company  in  order  to  keep  the  railroads,  to  be  built 
in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  free  from  competition  from 
the  start.  Accordingly,  he  entered  into  negotiations  for 
this  purpose  with  the  president  of  the  Navigation  Com- 
pany, Captain  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  for  the  purchase  of  the 
stock  of  himself  and  associates.  An  agreement  to  this 
effect  was  speedily  reached,  immediately  after  the  execu- 
tion of  which  Mr.  Villard  returned  to  New  York,  arriv- 
ing on  June  9th.  He  reported  his  doings  to  the  Union 
Pacific  parties,  and,  true  to  the  understanding  with  them, 
offered  them  half  an  interest  in  his  contract  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  control  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation 
Company's  stock,  and  in  the  new  Company,  under  the 
name  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company, 
by  which  he  intended  to  absorb  both  the  Oregon  Steam 
Navigation  Company  and  the  Oregon  Steamship  Com- 
pany, of  which  latter  he  had  already  acquired  control,  as 
heretofore  explained.  After  much  hesitation  and  delay, 
his  offer  was  declined — the  greatest  mistake  ever  made 
by  the  parties  controlling  the  Union  Pacific 

Mr.  Villard  had  six  months'  time  in  which  to  comply 
with  the  terms  of  the  Ainsworth  contract.  But  he  felt 
the  need  of  a  long  rest  in  Europe,  and  was  determined 
that  all  the  conditions — including  the  payment  of  $2,000,- 
000  in  cash,  the  organization  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  Company,  the  creation  of  a  mortgage,  the 
issue  of  stock  and  bonds,  and  numerous  other  details — 
should  be  complied  with  by  July  1st,  so  that  he  could  sail 
soon  thereafter.  Though  he  had  thus  but  three  weeks, 
he  accomplished  all  in  that  short  time,  with  the  intelligent 
and  devoted  aid  of  numerous  influential  friends. 

The  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  was  in- 
corporated on  the  13th  of  June,  1879.  It  had  authority  to 
issue  $6,000,000  of  bonds  and  $6,000,000  of  stock,   the 


HENRY   VILLARD  AS  RAILWAY  MANAGER. 


259 


Naviga- 
be  built 
on  from 
tions  for 
on  Com- 
e  of  the 
:  to  this 
le  execu- 
irk,  arriv- 
lie  Union 
ith  them, 

the  pur- 
avigation 
inder  the 
Company, 
Dn  Steam 
ship  Com- 
rontrol,  as 
md  delay, 

ver  made 

o  comply 
[it  he   felt 
letcrmined 
f  $2,000,- 
ilway  and 
gage,  the 
details — 
could  sail 
ee  weeks, 
ntelHgent 


greater  portion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  former  of  which 
served  to  acquire  the  properties  of  the  Oregon  Steamship 
Company,  and  to  carry  out  the  contract  with  Captain 
Ainsworth.  All  the  stock  then  issued  went  as  a  bonus  with 
the  bonds.  Mr.  Villard  was  elected  president  of  the  new 
Company,  and  J.  N.  Dolph,  of  Portland,  vice-president. 
Its  first  Board  of  Directors  was  composed  of  Henry 
Yillard,  Artemus  H.  Holmes,  William  H.  Starbuck,  and 
James  B.  Fry,  of  New  York,  and  George  W.  Weidler,  J.  C. 
Ainsworth,  S.  G.  Reed,  Paul  Schulze,  H.  VV.  Corbctt, 
C.   H.  Lewis,  and  J.  N.  Dolph,  of  Portland. 

Mr.  Villard  sailed  on  July  loth,  and  returned  early  in 
November.  A  friend  boarded  the  steamer  to  welcome 
him,  and,  in  reply  to  a  question,  pulled  out  a  broker's 
statement  showing  that  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Naviga- 
tion stock,  which  had  been  given  away  as  a  bonus  in 
July,  was  already  then  selling  at  95. 

Mr.  Villard,  before  sailing,  had  made  all  necessary 
arrangements  for  commencing  the  realization  of  the 
general  project,  fully  matured  in  the  meantime,  fcr  build- 
ing a  trunk  railroad  line  along  the  south  bank  -^f  the 
Columbia  River,  and,  in  connection  with  it,  a  fa.,  kc 
system  of  feeders  covering  Eastern  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington Territory.  During  the  summer  the  preliminary 
engineering  work  was  accomplished,  and  construction  had 
actually  commenced  on  his  return. 

The  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  has 
since  made  a  proud  record  as  the 'most  successful  trans- 
portation company  in  the  country.  It  started  with  net 
earnings  in  1879  of  about  three-quarters  of  a  million.  It 
is  expected  that  in  the  fourth  year  of  its  existence  it  will 
earn  four  times  that  amount.  It  has  expended  more 
than  $20,000,000  of  actual  money  in  building  over  ^00 
miles  of  standard  gauge  road,  and  in  largely  increasing 
its  other — real  and  floating — properties.     It  is  the  only 


■^nr 


260 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD, 


railroad  and  navigation  company  in  this  country  that 
since  its  first  issue  of  bonds  has  never  borrowed  a  dollar 
for  any  purpose,  but  has  raised  all  its  capital  by  selling 
its  stock  at  par  to  its  stockholders. 


jntry  that 
id  a  dollar 
by  selling 


Along  the.Cliffsfof  the  Columbia. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 


PRESIDENCY   OF  HENRY  VILLARD. 


Relations  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  with  the  North- 
ern Pacific  —A  Tlireatened  Conflict  of  Interests — Traffic  Contract  Agreed 
Upon — Villard's  Plan  to  Acquire  Control  of  the  Northern  Pacific — 
Hibtory  of  the  Blind  Pool — A  Romance  of  Wall  Street — Formation  of 
the  Oregon  nnd  Transcontinental  Company — Its  Objects — A  Legal 
Controversy  over  an  Issue  of  Northern  Pacific  Common  Stock — Henry 
Villard  ^lected  President  of  the  Northern  Pacific — Thomas  F.  Oakes 
Elected  >  ^-President — Important  Financial  Aid  Afforded  by  the 
Oregon  and  Transcontinental — Building  of  Branch  Lines. 

In  the  preceding  pages  an  account  has  been  given  of 
Mr.  Villard's  efforts  and  aims  in  organizing  the  Oregon 
Raihvay  and  Navigation  Company,  and  of  the  financial 
measures  taken  in  order  to  insure  its  rnpid  development 
from  a  mixed  transportation  system  consisting  of  steam- 
ships, steamboats,  and  a  small  disconnected  railroad  mile- 
age into  the  more  comprehensive  and  solid  system,  with  a 
preponderance  of  railroad  lines,  it  has  become  since  1879. 
But  it  was  not  only  the  needs  of  the  new  enterprise  in  these 
respects  that  called  for  his  attention  and  action.  It  be- 
came also  necessary,  at  an  early  stage,  to  provide  against 
danger  from  possible  competition.  The  principal  pros- 
pective danger  lay  in  the  possible  conflict  of  the  interests 
of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  with 
those  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  As 
early  as  the  spring  of  1880,  Mr.  Villard  entered  into  com- 
munication with  the  executive  officers  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  order  to  suggest  and  bring 
about,  if  practicable,  such  agreements  between  the  two 
corporations  as  would  avert  future  collisions.  Two  ob- 
jects he  was  especially  anxious  to  secure ;  first,  the  grant- 


wmm 


262 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ing  of  the  right  of  way  for  the  line  along  the  south  bank 
of  the  Columbia  River  to  be  built  by  the  Oregon  Railway 
and  Navigation  Company ;  and,  secondly,  a  traffic  arrange- 
ment under  which  the  Northern  Pacific  would  use  this 
line  as  its  outlet  to  tide-water  on  the  Pacific  coast,  in- 
stead of  building  a  line  of  its  own.  At  that  time  the  con- 
struction of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  Division,  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Snake  River  to  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille,  had  already 
been  determined  upon  by  the  Northern  Pacific,  on  the 
advice  of  the  then  managing  director  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
Captain  J.  C.  Ainsworth.  The  management  of  that 
Company  believed  with  him  that  the  transportation  facil- 
ities then  existing  along  the  Columbia  River  were  suf- 
ficient until  the  main  line  should  be  completed  across  the 
continent  to  a  junction  with  the  Pend  d'Oreille  Division. 
Moreover,  it  was  expected  that  the  formal  acquisition  of 
many  millions  of  acres  of  rich  lands  in  eastern  Washing- 
ton, by  the  construction  of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  Division, 
would  largely  improve  the  credit  and  help  the  finances 
of  the  Company.  Still,  it  may  be  assumed  that  if  the 
Northern  Pacific  management  had  known  or  anticipated 
before  the  financial  measures  adopted  for  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  Division  had  become  irre- 
vocable, that  a  new  and  probably  rival  interest  would 
acquire  control  of  the  navigation  of  the  Columbia  River, 
a  different  course  would  have  been  adopted.  Mr.  Viilard 
encountered  certain  apprehensions  from  this  source  in  his 
endeavors  for  the  traffic  arrangement  already  referred  to. 
It  was,  in  fact,  not  favorably  looked  upon,  but  he  finally 
satisfied  President  Billings,  who  had  in  the  meantime 
succeeded  President  Wright,  of  the  wisdom  of  his  propo- 
sitions, and,  as  a  prelimir  ary  measure,  it  was  agreed  that 
Director  J.  D.  Potts  should  visit  the  Pacific  coast,  and  with 
Mr.  Viilard  go  over  the  ground  to  be  covered  by  the  new 
transportation  lines,  with  a  view  to  finding  a  practicable 


PRESIDENCY  OF  HENRY   VILLA RD. 


263 


basis  for  a  mutually  satisfactory  arrangement.  Mr.  Potts 
met  Mr.  Villard  on  the  Pacific  coast,  as  agreed,  and  an 
understanding  was  reached  by  them  as  to  the  general 
basis  of  the  arrangement  to  be  entered  into  between 
the  two  companies.  Upon  their  return  to  the  East,  the 
work  of  elaboratintr  a  formal  contract  was  taken  in  hand 
by  both  sides.  After  weeks  of  deliberation,  a  definite 
draft  of  a  contract  was  perfected  and  accepted  by  the 
boards  of  directors  of  both  companies,  and  executed  on 
October  20,  1880.  Mr.  Villard  had^not  succeeded  in  all 
respects  in  this  contract.  He  aimed  at  a  positive  and 
permanent  engagement  on  the  part  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  to  use  the  Columbia  River  line  of  the  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company,  and  to  abstain  from 
the  construction  of  a  line  of  its  own.  He  only  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  an  agreement  that  the  Northern 
Pacific  should  use  the  Oregon  Railway  ar  d  Navigation 
line,  until  it  could  build  one  of  its  own.  Circumstances 
soon  arose  which  brought  him  directly  face  to  face  with 
the  dang-^r  of  competition,  threatened  by  the  provision  of 
the  contract  leaving  the  Northern  Pacific  free  to  build  a 
line  along  the  north  bank  of  the  Columbia  whenever 
it  was  able  and  saw  fit. 

The  tide  of  prosperity  which  had  set  in  throughout  the 
country  upon  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  had 
risen  to  its  greatest  height  in  the  spring  and  summer  of 
18S0.  The  investing  public  was  very  favorably  disposed 
toward  all  new  railroad  enterprises,  and  it  was  compara- 
tively easy  to  raise  large  sums  for  any  new  undertakings 
promising  reasonable  success.  Impressed  with  this  situa- 
tion of  affairs,  Mr.  Villard  conceived  the  project  of  ac- 
quiring a  controlling  influence  over  the  Northern  Pacific, 
by  furnishing  it  with  the  means  for  completing  the  main 
line,  through  a  syndicate  to  be  formed  by  him  of  his 
American  and  European  business   friends.     He  first  ap- 


Tmv 


264 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


proached  President  Billings  with  reference  to  the  project 
in  the  summer  of  1880,  upon  his  (Mr.  Villard's)  return 
from  his  visit  to  the  Pacific  coast  above  referred  to.  He 
felt  confident  that  he  could  easily  raise  from  $10,000,000 
to  $20,000,000  on  Northern  Pacific  first  mortgage  bonds, 
and  made  an  offer  to  this  effect  to  President  Billings, 
This  was  while  the  final  discussion  regarding  the  traffic 
contract  was  progressing,  and  Mr.  Villard  naturally  felt 
that  his  offer  of  a  large  amount  of  capital  to  the  Northern 
Pacific  would  render  jts  management  more  favorably  dis- 
posed toward  the  conclusion  of  the  contract.  As  already 
related  in  another  chapter,  President  Billings  and  the 
Northern  Pacific  board,  in  the  light  of  the  growing  de- 
mand, so  to  speak,  by  the  speculative  public  for  new  rail 
road  enterprises,  were  already  considering,  when  Mr. 
Villard  made  his  proposal,  the  possibilities  of  financial 
operations  for  the  same  object.  President  Billings,  in 
fact,  had  entered  into  formal  negotiations  with  some 
banking  firms,  for  the  negotiation  of  general  first  mort- 
gage bonds — a  fact  of  which,  however,  Mr.  Villard  had 
at  first  no  knowledge.  When  he  learned  of  these  negoti- 
ations, he  pressed  his  own  proposals  as  strongly  as  was  in 
his  power,  but  to  no  effect.  The  syndicate  contract  was 
signed,  which  fact,  and  the  intention  of  the  syndicate  to 
offer  to  the  public  a  large  portion  of  the  entire  issue  of 
the  general  first  mortgage  bonds  at  the  earliest  practi- 
cable moment,  Mr.  Villard  learned  soon  afterward.  He 
was  fully  alive  to  the  probable  consequences  of  the  large 
financial  resources  thus  assured  to  the  Northern  Pacific. 
What  with  this,  and  his  knowledge  of  the  reluctance 
with  which  the  Northern  Pacific  executive  had  entered 
into  the  traffic  contract,  and  the  purpose  openly  and  fre- 
quently avowed  during  the  negotiations  of  securing  an 
independent  outlet,  either  along  the  north  bank  of  the 
Columbia,  or  by  the  Cascade  Branch  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 


PRESIDENCY  OF  HENRY   VILLARD. 


265 


for  the  Northern  Pacific  main  line,  whenever  the  capital 
could  be  obtained  to  provide  it,  Mr.  Villard  was  per- 
suaded that  the  time  had  come  for  decisive  action, 
and  that  this  action  must  be  in  the  direction  of  the 
actual  control  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  an  identity  of  ownership  between  it  and  the 
Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company.  S'  :h  an 
arrangement  he  believed  essential  to  the  futi  .  -r  > 
perity  of  both  corporations.  To  carry  out  this  iaea,  Mr. 
Villard  conceived  the  project  of  forming  a  new  com- 
pany, which  should  acquire,  in  the  first  place,  a  controll- 
ing interest  in  the  respective  stocks  of  the  two  corpora- 
tions, and,  secondly,  should  possess  sufficient  pecuniary 
resources  for  the  construction  of  a  full  system  of  branch 
lines  subsidiary  to  the  main  lines  of  the  two  other  com- 
panies, to  protect  the  latter  from  encroachments  by  rival 
interests  and  at  the  same  time  produce  such  develop- 
ment of  local  traffic  along  the  entire  transcontinental  line 
as  would  naturally  increase  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  and  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation 
stocks. 

Mr.  Villard  had  sufficient  experience  in  Wall  Street 
to  i ...ow  that  if  he  gave  notice  to  the  public  of  his  inten- 
tion to  form  a  Company  for  such  a  purpose  he  would 
never  be  able  to  secure  his  first  and  main  object — that  is, 
to  acquire  by  purchase  in  the  open  market  a  controlling 
interest  in  the  stocks  of  the  two  companies  at  reasonable 
figures.  He  therefore  determined  to  buy  the  stocks  first, 
and  to  form  the  Company  that  was  eventually  to  own 
them  afterward.  But  even  in  this  operation,  involving, 
as  it  did,  the  purchase  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
shares  of  stock,  representing  a  money  value  of  tens  of 
millions  of  dollars,  success  depended  altogether  on  the 
greatest  possible  secrecy.  Mr.  Villard,  therefore,  exercised 
every  precaution  to  conceal  himself  as  a  buyer,  using  ex- 


266 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


clusively  his  private  means  and  credit.  Of  his  numerous 
friends  and  followers  but  very  few,  on  whose  discretion 
he  could  absolutely  rely,  knew  of  his  movements.  In  this 
way  he  very  quietly  took  out  of  the  markel;  large  lines  of 
the  desired  stocks  during  the  months  of  D  ^cember,  i8to, 
and  January,  i88i.  Having  thus  obtained  the  virtual 
control  of  the  market  as  regarded  the  three  stocks  he  was 
buying,  he  felt  sure  that  complete  success  was  only  a 
question  of  further  investment.  Early  in  February, 
1 88 1,  he  decided  to  call  on  his  friends  for  funds  for 
further  purchases — in  such  a  manner,  however,  as  would 
not  yet  disclose  the  real  object  he  sought  to  accom- 
plish. 

Having  absolute  faith  in  the  soundness  of  his  project, 
and  feeling  justified  in  taking  large  responsibilities,  as  the 
assumption  of  such  was  in  the  direct  interest  of  all  con- 
cerned, and  was  the  only  sure  means  of  accomplishing  his 
purpose,  he  decided  to  make  the  strongest  appeal  any 
man  could  make  to  the  confidence  of  others  in  him  by 
asking  his  friends  and  followers  to  place  their  money  in 
his  hands,  without  telling  them  the  use  to  which  he  in- 
tended to  put  it.  Accordingly  he  issued  a  private  cir- 
cular to  about  fifty  persons,  informing  them  that  he 
desired  them  to  subscribe  toward  a  fund  of  $8,000,000, 
to  which  he  would  himself  contribute  a  large  part,  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  certain 
enterprise,  the  exact  nature  of  which  he  would  disclose 
thereafter.  The  effect  of  the  announcement  was  marvel- 
ous. The  very  mystery  of  it  appeared  to  be  an  irresist- 
ible attraction.  The  result  was  that  one-third  of  the  per- 
sons appealed  to  signed  the  full  amount  asked  for  before 
the  subscription  list  could  reach  the  other  two-third?. 
Then  an  eager  rush  of  applications  for  th?  right  to  sub- 
scribe ensued,  and  within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  issue 
of  the  circular  more  than  twice  the  amount  offered  was 


PHESIDEXCV  OF  HENRY   VILLA RD. 


267 


appl'cd  for.  The  allotments  were  made  as  fairly  as  pos- 
sible, but  hardly  one  of  the  subscribers  was  satisfied  with 
the  amount  allowed  him.  All  wanted  more,  and  Mr. 
Villard's  offices  were  crowded  with  applicants  pleading 
for  larger  participations,  including  some  of  the  first 
bankers  of  the  city.  In  some  cases  the  disappointment 
led  to  angry  protests.  The  demand  far  exceeding  the 
supply,  the  subscriptions  commanded  twenty-five  per  cent, 
premium  at  once,  and  rose  to  thirty,  forty,  and  fifty  per 
cent,  premium  as  soon  as  the  allotment  was  announced  , 
that  is,  people  were  willing  to  pay  as  high  a  premium  as 
five  hundred  dollars  for  every  thousand  dollars  they  were 
permitted  to  pay  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Villard,  without 
having  the  least  idea  as  to  the  use  he  would  make  of 
their  money.  The  $S,ooo,ooo  subscribed  for  and  allotted 
were  called  for  payment  in  three  installments,  running 
from  February  15  to  April  2,  and  notwithstanding  the 
great  stringency  in  the  money  market  at  that  time — 
money  commanding  a  premium  of  from  one-eighth  of 
one  per  cent,  to  one  per  cent,  a  day — the  payments  were 
promptly  met,  without  a  single  exception. 

The  subscribers  received  a  personal  receipt  from  Mr. 
Villard,  reading  as  follows :  "  Received  this  day  from 
the  sum   of 


dollars,  as  his  contribu- 
tion to,  and  which  entitles  the  holder  hereof  to  a  propor- 
tionate interest  in,  the  transactions  of  a  Purchasing  Syn- 
dicate, to  be  formed,  with  a  capital  of  $8,000,000,  by 
agreement  in  writing  of  the  parties  in  like  interest,  for 
the  acquisition  of  properties,  real,  personal  and  mixed, 
for  tl  e  purpose  of  the  sale  thereof  to  or  the  consolida- 
tion thereof  with  The  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation 
Company,  or  The  Oregon  Improvement  Company,  or 
both,  or  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  the  formation  of  a  new 
Company.  It  is  understood  and  agreed  that  the  under- 
signed shall  account  to  the  holder  hereof  for  the  use  of  the 


268 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


moneys  for  which  this  and  like  receipts  are  given  on  or 
before  May  15,  1881,  but  not  sooner,  and  that  the  holder 
hereof  shall  participate  equally  in  all  the  profits  and 
benefits  of  every  description  with  all  other  persons  in  like 
interest  in  proportion  to  said  contribution.  This  receipt 
is  not  transferable  except  upon  the  written  consent  of 
the  undei  signed." 

For  reasons  of  policy,  the  accounting  promised  in  the 
receipt  for  May  15  was  postponed  until  June  24,  on 
which  day  the  subscribers  to  the  "  Purchasing  Syndi- 
cate "  met  by  invitation  in  the  offices  of  Mr.  Villard, 
when  he  formally  disclosed  for  the  first  time  his  full 
scheme  for  the  formation  of  a  third  Company  for  the 
double  object  already  explained.  The  project  was  so  well 
received  that  Mr.  Villard's  simultaneous  invitation  to  the 
subscribers  present  to  join  him  in  a  new  subscription  for 
the  further  amount  of  $12,000,000,  to  pay  for  additional 
amounts  of  Northern  Pacific  and  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  stocks  already  in  the  meantime  purchased  by 
him,  was  generally  responded  to. 

The  payments  on  account  of  the  second  subscription 
were  made  in  seven  separate  installments,  extending  from 
July  6,  1 88 1,  to  April  i,  1882,  when  the  last  installment,  of 
twenty  per  cent.,  amounting  to  nearly  $2,500,000,  was 
received,  thus  completing  the  two  subscriptions  under 
which  a  total  of  more  than  $20,000,000  in  money  was 
actually  paid  in.  Payments  on  all  of  the  seven  calls  were 
made  with  remarkable  regularity.  Although  the  original 
issues  of  receipts  for  large  subscriptions  were  exchanged 
in  most  cases  for  a  great  number  of  receipts  for  smaller 
amounts,  in  order  to  enable  bankers  and  brokers  to  deal  in 
them,  every  one  of  the  receipi-s  in  circulation  was  finally 
returned  for  cancellation. 

The  new  Company  was  formally  organized  immediately 
after  the  meeting  of  June  24,  above  referred  to,  under 


PRESIDENCY  OF  HENRY   VILLA RD. 


269 


the  name  of  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company. 
Its  immediate  object,  to-\vit,  the  union  of  the  control  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  and  the  Oregon  Railway 
and  Navigation  Companies,  was  at  first  misunderstood, 
and  led  to  some  uneasiness  and  apprehension  that  the 
profits  of  the  new  corporation  would  be  earned  to  the 
detriment  of  the  two  older  ones.  In  a  short  time,  how- 
ever, the  stockholders  generally  of  both  companies  became 
satisfied  that  the  union  would  not  only  worl-  no  harm  to 
them,  but  would  greatly  promote  their  prosperity. 

In  purchasing  a  controlling  interest  in  the  Northern 
Pacific  stocks,  it  was  not  the  purpose  of  Mr.  Villard  to 
oust  the  then  management  of  the  Company.  On  the  con- 
trary he  intended  to  offer  it  a  friendly  alliance,  and  to  ask 
merely  for  a  moderate  representation  in  the  Northern 
Pacific  board.  He  personally  made  such  a  proposition  to 
President  Billings,  and,  in  the  course  of  several  interviews 
with  him,  took  pains  to  explain  his  full  project  for  the 
control  of  ail  the  transportation  lines  in  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington Territory,  not  in  the  interest  and  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company,  but  really 
of  the  Northern  Pacific ;  but  President  Billings  con- 
sidered Mr.  Villard's  plans  as  too  far-reaching  or  rather 
visionary,  as  he  termed  them  :  nor  would  he  listen  to 
the  request  for  a  small  representation  in  the  board.  He 
and  the  other  members  of  the  board  were  impressed 
with  the  belief  that  it  was  Mr.  Villard's  intention  to  ob- 
tain control  of  the  Northern  Pacific  in  the  sole  interest  of 
the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company — that  is,  to 
secure  a  permanent  monopoly  of  Oregon  and  Washington 
Territory  for  that  Company  to  the  exclusion  of  contem- 
plated Northt^rn  Pacific  lines  in  that  region.  After  his 
unsuccessful  -^fiforts  for  a  recognition,  Mr.  Villard  offered 
to  purchase  the  holdings  of  Mr.  Billings  and  the  other 
directors.     This  offer  was  also  declined. 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Up  to  that  time  there  remained  undistributed  in  the 
hands  of  the  treasurer  of  the  Company  as  trustee  about 
$i8,ooo,ooj  out  of  the  $49,000,000  of  Northern  Pacific 
Common  stock  created  under  the  terms  of  reorganization. 
It  had  been  the  practice  theretofore  to  distribute  the  issue 
of  Common  stock  to  those  entitled  thereto  in  proportion 
to  the  progress  of  construction  of  the  road.  President 
Billings,  alarmed  by  the  movements  of  Mr.  Villard,  called 
a  meeting  of  the  executive  committee,  at  which  it  was  re- 
solved to  divide  at  once  the  undistributed  portion  of  the 
stock.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Villard  obtc\ined  knowledge  of 
this  purpose,  he  sued  out  a  t'.'mpoiar/  injunction  in  order 
to  prevent  the  distribution.  Simultaneously  suit  was 
commenced  by  a  preferred  stockholder  agai'ist  the  Com- 
pany for  an  accounting  for  the  earnings  belonging  to  the 
preferred  stock  under  the  reorganization.  The  litigation 
attracted  f.^eneral  attention  at  the  time.  After  it  had  pro- 
gressed some  weeks,  a  compromise  was  made,  under 
which  Mr.  Villard  secured  recognition  in  the  board  by  the 
election  of  Messrs.  Artemas  H.  Holmes  and  Thomas  F. 
Oakes,  in  place  of  Joseph  Dilworth  and  Johnston  Liv- 
ingston, and  by  the  election  of  Tl.omas  Oakes  as  first 
vice-president. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Northern  Pacific  stock- 
holders held  September  15,  1881,  a  board  of  directors 
was  chosen  satisfactory  both  to  the  Oregon  and  Transcoii- 
tincntal  Company  and  to  the  old  management.  It  con- 
sisted of  the  following  persons  :  Frederick  Billings,  Ash- 
bel  H  Barney,  John  \V.  Ellis,  Rosewell  G.  Rolston, 
Robert  Harris,  Thomas  V.  Oakes,  Artemas  H.  Holmes 
and  Henry  Villard,  of  New  York;  J.  L.  Stackpolc, 
Elijah  Smith  and  Benjamin  P.  Cheney,  of  Boston  ;  John 
C.  Bullitt,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Henry  E.  Johnston,  of 
Baltimore.  Henry  Villard  was  tlvm  elected  president, 
Thomas  l'.  Oakes,  vice-president ;    Anthony  J.  Thomas, 


PRESIDENCY  OF  HENRY  VILLA RD. 


271 


second  vice-president ;  Samuel  Wilkeson,  secretary,  and 
Robert  L.  Belknap,  treasurer.  Mr.  Wilkeson  had  been 
secretary  since  1870,  and  Mr.  Belknap  treasurer  since 
1879.  Mr.  Thomas  came  into  the  official  organization 
of  the  Company  from  the  banking-house  of  Drexcl, 
Morgan  &  Co.  Further  changes  were  made  in  the 
board  at  the  election  in  1882,  to  give  additional  repre- 
sentation to  the  syndicate  of  bankers  who  had  taken  the 
forty-million  loan.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  and  August  Bel- 
mont were  elected  in  place  of  Artemas  '^.\.  Holmes  and 
Elijah  Smith.  Mr.  Villard  assumed  the  active  direction 
of  the  Company's  affairs  immediately  after  his  election  to 
the  presidency. 

The  wisdom  of  making  adequate  provision,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental 
Company,  for  whatever  financial  requirements  might 
arise  in  completing  and  equipping  the  main  line  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  was  clearly  demonstrated  soon  after  the 
change  in  the  control  of  the  road.  Under  the  stringent 
and  embarrassing  conditions  of  the  contract  Mith  the 
bankers'  syndicate,  bonds  could  only  be  issued  to  the 
amount  of  $25,000  per  mile  as  fast  as  sections  of  25  miles 
were  completed  and  examined  by  United  States  Com- 
missioners, and  accepted  by  the  Government.  There 
were  unavoidable  delays  in  the  examination,  and  275 
miles  of  new  road  "  o.^.  l)uilt  before  the  Government 
inspection  took  place.  The  completion  of  this  mileage 
involved  the  nece.viity  of  procuring  a  very  large  sum  of 
money  in  advance  of  the  receipt  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
bonds  based  upon  it.  In  his  annual  report  of  1882,  Presi- 
dent Villard  said  : 


"  Kven  if  more  prompt  ir\spection  li.id  heen  practicalilc — which  il  was  not 
— the  supply  of  innney  from  the  s.»le  of  IjoikU  uiiiicr  ihe  Utius  of  the  ton- 
tract  witii  the  syiidicjle  woiihl  nut  liave  avoided  tlie  nctcisily  for  1  ,,c  addi- 
tional funds  ai  working  capital. 


m 


272 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


"  The  cause  of  this  necessity  is  very  clear.  When  the  contract  with  the 
syndicate  was  entered  into,  it  was  practically  impossible,  owing  to  liie  in- 
completeness of  the  labors  of  the  engineers,  to  make  accurate  calculations  as 
to  the  period  of  time  and  the  current  supplies  of  money  required  for  the  vast 
work  of  building  nearly  one  thousand  miles  of  new  and,  in  great  part,  very 
difficult  road,  mostly  through  unsettled  regions  destitute  of  construction  fa- 
cilities. Financial  arrangements  were  made  in  the  light  of  the  best  informa- 
tion then  extant,  which,  however,  proved  deceptive.  It  soon  became  apparent 
that,  in  order  to  work  without  great  waste  of  time  and  loss  of  money,  it  was 
indispensable,  in  the  first  place,  to  build  simultaneously  from  both  ends  of 
the  main  line,  and,  secondly,  to  begin  at  once  all  the  heavy  work  upon  its 
entire  lengtii.  This  involved  the  shipment  of  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
track  material,  motive  power  and  rolling  stock  to  the  Pacific  coast  many 
months  before  ihcir  actual  use  on  the  road  ;  and  on  the  line  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  very  large  expenditures  of  cash  a  long  time  befo.c  the 
works  resulting  from  them  could  become  jiartft  of  finished  road. 

"  Thus  there  came  calls  upon  the  treasury  far  in  excess  of  the  proceeds  of 
bonds  received  from  the  syndicate,  and  of  the  net  earnings  ;  and  what  adtlcd 
to  the  embarrassment  of  the  situation  was  the  impossijjility  of  issuing  boiuls 
and  delivering  them  to  the  syndicate  except  upon  the  mileage  of  completed 
road  approved  by  the  Government,  owing  to  a  provision  of  the  mortgage 
under  the  requirements  of  the  plan  of  reorganization.  Hut,  tiianks  to  the 
assistance  of  the  syndicate  and  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company, 
the  treasury  was  always  prepared  to  meet  all  demands  without  ever  borrow 
ing  in  the  open  market.  And  the  management  can  now  point  to  the  fact 
that  it  has  fini-.hed  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  of  road,  graded  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  additional,  bought  and  paid  for  sufficient  rails  for 
the  entire  gap  between  the  two  ends  of  the  main  line,  and  made,  besidc>^, 
the  current  disbursements  for  motive  power,  rolling  stock,  the  Bismarck 
bridge,  the  great  Hozeman  and  Helena  tunnels,  and  other  heavier  portions 
of  the  work,  mit/ioiit  (/lUvcrin:^'  a  singic  bond  to  the  syndicate  from  December 
last  till  September  19." 


The  effective  aid  of  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental 
Company  continued  to  be  required  by  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific thenceforth  to  the  very  end  of  the  construction 
work  on  the  main  line.  It  is  now  well  known  to  all  con- 
nected with  the  management  of  the  Northern  Pacific, 
that  but  for  this  aid  the  Company  could  not  have  main- 
tained a  very  high  credit,  and  that  the  main  line  could  not 
have  been  finished  in   1883— in  fact,  that    it  could  not 


ict  with  the 
I  to  the  in- 
culations  as 
for  the  vast 
it  part,  very 
jtruclion  fa- 
est  informa- 
me  apparent 
nncy,  it  was 
)th  ends  of 
irii  upon  its 
rs'  worth  of 
coast  many 
east  of  the 
;  befo.c  tiie 

proceeds  of 
what  added 
suing  iionds 
f  coniplcled 
e  mortgage 
inks  to  the 
1  Company, 
ver  borrow - 
to  tlie  fact 
graded  one 
cnt  rads  for 
de,  besides, 
e  I!i>marck 
ier  portions 
'/I  Dcccmbo- 


iitinental 
hern  Pa- 
struction 
)  all  coii- 
i  Pacific, 
I'c  maiii- 
oiild  not 
ould  not 


i,f^i#s^  ■;  /:':rJ':?f't-:*^~^ 


PRESIDENCY  OF  HEXKY   VILLA RD. 


VI 


have  been  completed  at  all  without  securing  additional 
capital  over  and  above  the  proceeds  of  the  General  First 
Mortgage  Bonds. 

The  second  object  of  the  Oregon  Transcontinental 
Company,  as  announced  in  its  first  annual  report,  was  "  to 
promote  the  Company's  own  interest,  as  the  holder  of 
such  stocks  (Northern  Pacific  and  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  Company)  by  the  creation  of  such  auxiliary 
systems  of  railroad,  steamship  and  steamboat  lines  as 
would  tend  to  protect  and  increase  the  transportation  busi- 
ness of  these  two  corporations,"  In  pursuance  of  this  ob- 
ject, the  branch  lines  of  the  Northern  Pacific  road  in 
Minnesota  and  Dakota  partially  constructed  at  the  time 
Mr.  Villard  assumed  the  presidency  of  the  Company  have 
been  acquired  by  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Com- 
pany and  pushed  vigorously  toward  completion.  A 
number  of  additional  branchi,s  have  been  commenced; 
particulars  regarding  which  arc  given  in  the  following 
chapter. 

In  the  spring  of  the  present  year,  the  Oregon  and 
Traubcontinental  Company  succeeded  in  obtaining  a 
lease  in  perpetuity  of  the  important  roads  of  the  Oregon 
and  California  Railroad  Company,  one  extetuling  from 
Portland,  on  the  cast  bank  of  the  Willamette  River  south- 
ward toward  California,  and  the  other  running  up  the  west 
bank  for  one  hundred  miles.  In  connection  with  the  lease, 
the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company  also  entered 
into  a  coUhtruction  contract  for  the  completion  of  t)\e 
main  line  to  a  junction  with  the  Central  Pacific  s)stcm  at 
the  California  boundary.  This  junction  will  be  made,  it 
is  expected,  in  the  summer  of  1884.  The  control  of  the 
Oregon  and  California  system  will  be  of  the  utmost  bene- 
fit to  the  Northern  Pacific,  as  it  will  be  \.\\:  means  of  con- 
necting the  latter  with  the  whole  of  California. 

Among  the  important  and  far-sighted  measures  of  Mr. 
i8 


274 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Villard's  administration  have  been  the  arrangements 
made  in  advance  of  the  completion  of  the  main  line  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  for  terminal  facilities  in  the  cities  of 
Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and  Portland.  These  arrange- 
ments, without  drawing  on  the  financial  resources  of  the 
railroad  company  at  a  time  when  all  its  means  arc 
needed  to  open  and  equip  its  transcontinental  line,  secure 
for  its  system  the  use  and  control  of  ample  depot  build- 
ings for  passenger  and  freight  uses,  freight  and  cattle 
yards,  repair  shops,  round-houses,  grain  elevators,  and, 
in  the  case  of  Portland,  of  a  bridge  across  the  broad, 
navigable  stream  of  the  Willamette  River.  The  prepara- 
tion of  the  financial  plan  for  t.^ese  two  terminal  systems 
and  their  successful  presentation  to  investors  was  the 
work  of  Edward  D.  Adams,  of  the  firm  of  Winslow, 
Lanier  &  Co.  For  the  Portland  terminus  a  Company 
was  organized  under  the  laws  of  Oregon,  called  the 
Northern  Pacific  Terminal  Company  of  Oregon,  with  a 
capital  stock  of  $3,000,000,  owned  entirely  by  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Company,  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navig.i- 
tion  Compan)',  and  the  Oregon  and  California  Compan\-. 
The  Terminal  Company  issues,  as  required,  and  only  for 
the  creation  of  its  terminal  property,  $5,000,000  of  first 
mortgage  bonds,  and  the  three  transportation  companies 
jointl)'  and  s(->verally  agree  to  pay  as  rental  for  the  termi 
nal  facilities  provided  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  six  per 
cent,  interest  on  the  bonds  and  to  provide  a  sinking  fund 
to  extinguish  the  principal  at  maturity. 

For  the  termini  at  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  the  work 
was  undertaken  under  the  ownership  of  the  St.  Paul  and 
Northern  Pacific  Railway  Com[)any,  the  successor  of  the 
Western  Railroad  Company  of  Minnesota.  Particulars 
concerning  these  corporations,  and  the  terminal  facilities 
in  the  two  cities  mentioned,  are  given  in  a  succeeding 
chapter. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  HENRY    VJLLARD. 


275 


Late  in  the  summer  of  1883,  as  tliis  volume  goes  to 
the  press,  the  long  lines  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
advancing,  one  from  the  East  and  the  other  from  the 
West,  up  the  two  slopes  of  the  continent,  are  about  to 
meet  near  the  summit  ridge  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
By  an  interesting  coincidence,  their  point  of  junction  is 
not  far  from  the  spot  where  the  advance  parties  of  Gov. 
Stevens'  exploring  expedition  met  in  1853,  one  having 
come  from  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  and  the  other  from  Pugct 
Sound  and  the  Columbia  River.  Thus  the  first  survey 
of  the  route  of  the  Northern  Pacific  prefigured  the  history 
of  the  actual  construction  of  the  road.  The  water-shed 
of  the  continent  is  the  meeting-place  of  the  advancing 
ends  of  track,  as  it  was  of  Grover  and  Saxtoi\  the  two 
young  officers  in  command  of  the  pioneer  parties  of  the 
Stevens  expedition.  With  the  completion  of  the  main 
line  of  the  road,  the  great  project  of  a  commercial  highway 
to  the  Pacific  by  the  valley  route  of  the  Missouri  and 
the  Columbia  rivers  is  at  List  realized.  The  trail  of  Lewis 
and  Clarke  is  now  spanned  by  the  steel  rail.  The  enter- 
prise of  which  Barlow  wrote  in  1834,  to  which  Whitney 
gave  years  of  earnest  but  fruitless  effort  ;  which  enlisted 
the  engineering  talent  and  energy  of  Johnson  and 
Roberts,  and  was  shown  to  be  feasible  and  wise  by 
Stevens'  gallant  explorations  ;  the  enterprise  for  which 
Perham  obtained  a  charter  from  Congress  conveying 
the  most  extensive  and  valuable  land  grant  ever 
given  to  any  corporation,  and  to  the  prosecution  of 
which  a  long  line  of  energetic,  competent  men — bankers, 
capitalists,  railway  buiUlcrs,  engine  crs,  lawyers,  journalists 
and  pioneers  have  ilevoted  j'cars  of  the  best  labor  of  hand 
AwiS.  brain,  is  at  last  achieved.  Over  the  unbroken  lino 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  ro.id,  from  St.  T'aul  and  Lak. 
Superior  to  the  broad  estuary  of  Pugct  Sound,  the  loco- 
motive now  runs.    At  last  the  communities  of  the  Pacific 


276 


A^OKT/IEKX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Northwest  are  united  to  the  East ;  at  last  the  best  of  the 
transcontinental  highways  between  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Pacific  is  open  to  the  flow  of  the  currents  of  travel  and 
commerce.  Thirty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  Govern- 
ment surveys  were  made  for  this  line  of  railroad  ;  nearly 
forty  since  the  project  was  first  urged  upon  Congress: 
nearly  fifty  since  it  was  first  discussed  in  the  press.  Yet 
the  road  has  been  constructed  in  time  to  lead  the  van  of 
advancing  population  through  Dakota  and  Montana,  and 
from  the  Pacific  coast  into  the  fertile  plains  and  valleys 
of  Washington  and  Idaho,  and  is  completed  as  a  highway 
from  ocean  to  ocean  in  time  best  to  fulfill  the  ardent  hopes 
of  its  projectors  and  builders. 


)est  of  the 
:  and  the 
;ravel  and 
e  Govcin- 
d  ;  nearly 
Congress ; 
•ess.  Yet 
:hc  van  of 
itana,  and 
id  valleys 
I  highway 
ent  hopes 


Mulluomah  Kails,  Columbia  Kivur. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 


DIOCUAl'IIICAL    SKKTCIIES. 

W.  Milnor  Roberts'  Career  as  an  Kngineer-  His  Early  Connection  wiih 
Railroads  in  the  United  States — Ikiildinj;  a  Railroad  in  IJrazil — Chief 
Kn"incer  of  the  Northern  I'acilic — His  Death  in  lira/il — Samuel  Wilke- 


-HisCn 


son — ills  („areer  as  a  Journalist — His  Connection  with  the  Government 
War  Loans — Elected  Secretary  of  the  Northern  I'acilic  Company — The 
Senior  Ofticcr  of  the  Company  in  Lenj^th  of  Service — Col.  ( ieori^e  dray — 
liirth  aiul  Education  in  Ireland — Colonel  of  a  Cavalry  Rej;iment  in  the 
War  for  the  Union  — IJccomes  Attorney  and  (leneral  Counsel  of  the 
Northern  I'acilic  Company — Ilis\'alual)le  Services — Thomas  !•".  Oakes — 
A  Practical  Railroad  Man  from  his  Vouili — Ilis  Connection  with  Rail- 
roads in  Kansas — Manager  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation 
Comiiany — Vice-President  of  the  Northern  Pacific — Active  Operations  in 
Huilding  the   Road. 

William  INIilnor  Roderts  was  bom  in  riiiladclphia 
on  February  I2th,  i8io,  and  was  of  Quaker  descent.  He 
was  educated  in  the  best  private  schools  of  that  city,  and 
showed  an  early  aptitude  for  mathematics  and  drawing. 
When  in  his  sixteenth  year  he  selected  the  engineering 
profession,  and  obtained  employment  on  the  Union  Canal, 
in  the  spring  of  1825,  as  a  chainman  under  the  direction 
of  the  eminent  canal  engineer,  Canvass  White.  At  the 
age  of  18  he  was  promoted  to  thu  charge  of  the  most 
difficult  section  of  the  Lehigh  Canal,  extending  from 
Mauch  Chunk  sixteen  miles  down  the  river.  It  was 
soon  afterward  his  good  fortune  to  be  connected  with  the 
first  railroad  enterprises  in  the  United  States,  his  career 
as  an  engineer  being  thus  contemporaneous  with  the  begin- 
nings and  growth  of  the  greatest  agent  of  modern  civili- 
zation. Railroad  engineering  in  the  United  States  began 
in  a  crude  way  in  1826  at  the  Ouincy  granite  quarry  in 


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278 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Massachusetts,  where  a  tramway  vis  built  for  transport- 
ing stone  to  the  water,  a  distance  of  three  or  four  miles. 
The  first  railroad  of  any  consequence,  however,  was  the 
Mauch  Chunk  gravity  road,  nine  miles  in  length  ;  and  ]\Ir. 
Roberts  was  one  of  the  passengers  on  the  first  trip  made 
by  a  car  over  this  line.  In  1830  Mr.  Roberts  was  ap- 
pointed resident  engineer  in  charge  of  the  Union  Railroad 
and  canal  feeder  in  Pennsylvania.  In  1831-32-33  and 
'34  he  was  senior  principal  assistant  engineer  on  the 
Alleghany  Portage  Railroad  which  transported  the  boats 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Canal  across  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains, by  the  aid  of  inclined  planes  and  stationary  engines. 
In  1835  ^^6  received  his  first  appointment  as  chief  engi- 
neer, being  called  to  fill  that  position  on  the  Harrisburg  and 
Lancaster  Railroad.  In  1835-36  he  planned  and  built  the 
first  combined  railroad  and  common  road  bridge  in  the 
United  States,  which  crosses  the  Susquehanna  River  at 
Harrisburg.  During  the  same  year  he  accepted  the  chief 
engineership  of  the  Cumberland  Valley  Railroad,  which  he 
held  until  1837.  For  twentyyears,  from  1837  to  1857,  Mr. 
Roberts'  career  was  one  of  almost  unexampled  variety, with- 
in the  limits  of  his  profession.  His  great  energy  and  excep- 
tional working  power  enabled  him  to  undertake  and  com- 
plete an  amount  of  labor  of  which  few  men  are  capable.  He 
was  successively  chief  engineer  of  the  Monongahela 
River  Improvements,  Pennsylvania  State  Canal  Con- 
struction works,  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  Ohio  River  im- 
provements (1837-41).  In  1841-42  he  was  a  contractor 
on  the  Welland  Canal  enlargement.  In  1843-44  he  was 
chief  engineer  for  the  Erie  Canal  Company ;  and  from 
1845  to  1847  chief  engineer  and  trustee-agent  for  the 
Sandy  and  Beaver  Canal  Company  of  Ohio.  In  1848  the 
Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  appointed  him  to  make  a 
survey  on  the  Pennsylvania  Canal,  to  avoid,  if  possible, 
the  Schuylkill  inclined  plane.     In  1849  ^^^  became  chief 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 


79 


engineer  of  the  Belle  Fontaine  and  Indiana  Railroad,  in 
Ohio,  where  he  remained  until  1851.  From  1852  to  1854 
he  was  chief  engineer  of  the  Alleghany  Valley  Railroad, 
consulting  engineer  for  the  Atlantic  and  Mississippi 
Railroad,  contractor  for  the  whole  of  the  Iron  Mountain 
Railroad,  in  Missouri,  and  chairman  of  the  commission 
appointed  for  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  to  examine 
and  report  upon  routes  for  avoiding  the  inclined  planes 
on  the  Alleghany  Portage  Railroad.  From  1855  to  1857 
he  was  a  contractor  for  che  entire  line  of  the  Keokuk, 
Des  Moines  and  Mississippi  Railroad,  consulting  engi- 
neer for  the  Pittsburg  and  Erie  and  the  Tcrre  Haute, 
Vandalia  and  St.  Louis  Railroads,  and  chief  engineer  of  the 
Keokuk,  Mount  Pleasant  and  Muscatine  Railroad.  In 
December,  1857,  Mr.  Roberts  went  to  Brazil'to  examine 
the  route  of  the  Dom  Pedro  II.  Railway,  with  the  pur- 
pose of  bidding  for  its  construction.  The  following  year, 
as  the  head  of  a  firm  of  American  contractors,  he  con- 
cluded a  contract  with  the  Brazilian  Minister  at  Wash- 
ington, Senhor  Carvalho  de  Borges,  for  the  construction 
of  the  road.  Returning  shortly  after  to  Brazil  he  took 
active  charge  of  the  work,  and  completed  it  in  1864.  In 
that  year  and  in  1865  he  inspected  various  public  works 
in  Brazil,  and  in  the  La  Plata  Republics,  returning  home 
in  the  latter  part  of  1865.  Soon  after  his  arrival  in  the 
United  States,  Mr.  Roberts  took  charge  of  the  surveys 
for  the  Atlantic  and  Great  Western  Railroad,  which  he 
completed  in  1867.  In  the  same  year  he  was  appointed 
civil  engineer  in  charge  of  the  Ohio  River  improvement. 
In  1868  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  construction  of 
the  great  St.  Louis  bridge  during  the  ill  health  of  Captain 
J.  M.  Eads,  who  was  obliged  to  cease  work  for  a  year. 

The  position  of  chief  engineer  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  was  tendered  to  Mr.  Roberts  in  the  fall  of  1869. 
In  accepting  it  he  severed  all  other  professional  engage- 


28o 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ments.  Going  to  the  Pacific  coast  in  the  sumnner  of  that 
year,  he  made  the  reconnoissance  of  the  route  as  far  as 
Bozeman  Pass,  which  we  have  described  in  a  preceding 
chapter.  The  entire  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  road 
from  Lake  Superior  to  Puget  Sound  was  located  by  Mr. 
Roberts ;  and  the  route  selected  by  him  was  followed  in 
the  subsequent  construction,  with  the  single  exception 
of  the  portion  of  the  main  line  between  Gallatin  and 
the  mouth  of  the  Little  Blackfoot  River.  Mr.  Roberts 
preferred  the  Deer  Lodge  Pass  to  the  Mullan  Pass  for 
crossing  the  main  divide  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
intended  that  the  road  should  run  from  Bozeman  to 
the  Jefferson  River,  and  thence  by  way  of  the  Jefferson 
Gallon  and  the  Deer  Lodge  Pass  to  the  town  of  Deer 
Lodge,  and?  so  down  the  Deer  Lodge  Rive'r  to  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Little  Blackfoot.  After  his  resignation  the 
route  was  changed  for  the  purpose  of  shortening  the  line, 
and  of  having  the  road  run  by  way  of  the  important  city 
of  Helena,  the  capital  of  Montana. 

In  1874,  Mr.  Roberts  was  a  member  of  the  commission 
of  civil  engineers  appointed  by  President  Grant  to  in- 
quire into  the  feasibility  of  constructing  a  canal  to  avoid 
the  obstructions  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River; 
the  Eads  jetty  system,  subsequently  adopted,  being  op- 
posed at  that  time  by  many  eminent  engineers.  In 
company  with  the  other  members  of  the  commission,  Mr. 
Roberts  examined  the  Amsterdam  Canal,  the  jetties  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Danube,  the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  canal  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Rhone,  and  subsequently  the  Delta  of 
the  Mississippi.  The  report  of  this  commission  was  in 
favor  of  the  jetty  system,  and  led  to  the  adoption  of 
Captain  Lads'  proposition  by  Congress.  In  the  succeed- 
ing fall  Mr.  Roberts  became  one  of  the  advising  board  of 
seven  distinguished  engineers  selected  by  Mr.  Eads  to  aid 
in  the  plans  and  construction  of  the  jetty  work. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 


:8i 


The  Emperor  of  Brazil,  Dom  Pedro  II.,  during  his 
tour  in  the  United  States  in  1876-7,  visited  the  jetties  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  in  1877  requested  Cap- 
tain Eads  to  recommeiid  an  engineer  competent  to  im- 
prove the  rivers  and  harbors  of  Brazil.  Mr.  Roberts  was 
then  in  Washington  Territory,  locating  the  line  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  He  was  recommended  for 
the  position,  and  accepted  an  offer  of  three  years'  employ- 
ment for  $75,000,  beginning  in  January,  1879.  This 
closed  his  connection  with  the  Northern  Pacific  enter- 
prise. He  left  New  York  on  the  4th  of  January,  1879, 
and,  arriving  in  Rio,  was  at  once  charged  with  the  im- 
provements of  the  port  of  Santos,  which  he  completed  in 
June,  and  in  August  began  a  survey  of  the  upper  San 
Francisco  River,  which  occupied  him  for  a  period  of  six 
months.  He  subsequently  served  on  a  commission  to 
report  on  the  new  water-works  for  Rio,  and  soon  after 
examined  all  the  northern  ports  of  the  empire.  In  1881 
he  undertook  an  examination  of  the  Rio  Das  Velhas,  but 
was  compelled  to  suspend  his  journey  on  the  7th  of  July, 
at  a  little  settlement  called  Soledadc,  where  he  was  seized 
with  typhus  fever,  and  died  a  week  later  in  his  seventy- 
second  year.  Mr.  Roberts  kept  up  his  habit  of  hard  and 
regular  work  to  the  last,  and  when  over  seventy  years  old 
was  able  to  do  severe  intellectual  and  physical  labor  twelve 
hours  a  day  in  the  depths  of  the  primeval  forests  of 
Brazil.  Samuel  Wilkeson,  speaking  of  him,  said:  "He 
was  the  best  engineer  this  country  has  produced.  And  he 
was  the  soul  of  honor.  There  was  not  money  ,'nough  in 
the  United  States  Treasury  to  buy  him  away  fro  m  his  con- 
science, or  make  him  surrender  a  deliberately  formed  pro- 
fessional conclusion.  Duty  seemed  to  wholly  control  the 
man.  Yet  right  alongside  of  his  intolerant  conscience  was 
more  mirthfulness  than  I  ever  saw  in  man,  more  ten- 
derness and  sweetness  than  I  have  seen  in  most  men.    The 


282 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


good  stories  and  the  accumulated  wit  of  the  Engh'sh- 
speaking  world  seemed  to  be  in  his  head.  I  traveled 
with  him  thousands  of  miles,  ate  with  him,  slept  witli 
him,  rode  with  him  by  rail,  on  the  sea,  on  horseback. 
In  eleven  years'  constant  association  I  never  saw  a  trace 
of  selfishness  in  Milnor  Roberts — not  even  that  common- 
est expression  of  it  which  grumbles  at  discomforts.  His 
patience  and  sweetness  were  inexhaustible,  except  when 
in  his  business  he  uncovered  a  thief  or  a  liar.  He  was 
generous  and  self-forgetful  beyond  all  my  experience  of 
men.  Had  it  been  possible  for  him  to  do  so,  he  would 
have  given  himself  away  limb  by  limb.  His  energy  as 
an  engineer  was  exceptional.  For  rapidity  of  work  he- 
was  unequalled.  His  power  of  labor  made  him  a  proverb. 
I  have  seen  him  before  breakfast  witing  in  a  corner  of  a 
car  on  the  Pacific  railroad.  At  nine  o'clock  at  night  he 
was  yet  writing.  I  have  seen  him  steadily  through  the 
day  take  notes  in  a  stage  coach,  and  on  a  steamer.  Ho 
was  the  only  man  I  ever  saw  write  continuously  in  the 
saddle.  I  believe  he  wrote  from  Walla  Walla  to  Missoula, 
on  our  reconnoissance  of  the  Northern  Pacific  route.  Oh, 
the  great  engineer  and  the  dear  man  !  It  seems  but  yes- 
terday that,  as  our  horses  walked  through  the  Coriacan 
Defile,  I  coaxed  him  to  put  up  his  note-book  and  talk. 
And  then  I  became  acquainted  with  the  unseen  presence 
that  watched  and  guided  him  while  he  was  building  the 
Dom  Pedro  railroad  in  Brazil — that  remoulded  his  life  in 
South  America — that  ever  since  came  to  him  when  in 
trouble  or  doubt,  and  gave  him  wisdom  and  strength — 
that  finally  made  the  whole  life  of  this  great  constructor 
to  be  spiritual  and  childlike." 

Samuel  Wilkeson  was  fifty-two  years  old  when  he  was 
chosen  secretary  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany, He  was  born  in  Buffalo  in  1817,  graduated  from 
Union  College,  was   educated  to   the  bar   under  Daniel 


B I  OCR  A  PHICA  L    SKE  TCIIES. 


28' 


Cady,  the  traditional  great  lawyer  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  in  1840  admitted  to  practice  a  profession  from 
which  he  was  always  turning  aside  to  write  for  a  news- 
paper. He  was  born  a  journalist.  His  boyhood  mates 
recall  the  weekly  paper,  written  with  a  pen,  which  he 
published    every    Saturday   in    Amos    Smith's    grammar 


school  in   New  Haven,  Com 


It 


was 


but 


a  question  o 


f 


time  when  he  would  belong  to  the  press  ;  and  in  1856,  in 
Buffalo,  he  started  a  radical,  liberal,  daily  paper,  the 
Democracy.  From  that  paper,  on  the  persuasion  of  Gov- 
ernor Seward  and  Thurlow  Weed,  he  went  to  the  Al- 
bany Evening  Journal,  buying  Thurlow  Weed's  and 
George  Dawson's  interests,  and  editing  it  as  principal 
owner.  His  health  gave  way  in  the  second  year  of  his 
work  in  Albany,  and  he  was  compelled  to  sell  out  and  go 
into  utter  idleness.  A  year  and  a  half  of  rest  gave  him 
the  heart  to  accept  an  invitation  from  Horace  Greeley  to 
come  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  N.  Y.  Tribune.  As  an 
editorial  writer  and  the  day  editor,  he  worked  on  this 
great  paper  till  after  the  rebellion  broke  out,  and  after 
the  "  On  to  Richmond  !  "  revolution  had  made  its  changes 
in  the  Tribune's  editorial  organization.  This  revolution 
threw  out  of  office  General  Fitz  Henry  Warren  in  charge 
of  the  paper  in  Washington.  Mr.  Greeley  appointed  Mr. 
Wilkeson  to  the  place.  He  had  charge  of  the  Tribune 
bureau  in  Washington  till  the  close  of  the  war,  with  an 
interval  of  one  year's  service  on  the  N.  Y.  Times.  This 
interval  was  induced  by  a  natural  rage  at  Mr.  Greeley's 
bailing  Jefferson  Davis. 

Two  sons  and  six  nephews  in  the  army  of  the  Potomac, 
all  in  the  line,  gave  Mr.  Wilkeson  a  constant  personal 
attraction  to  the  war.  Choosing  the  times  of  great  mili- 
tary movements  and  battles  for-absence  from  hio  trust  in 
Washington,  he  often  volunteered  to  do  the  work  of  chief 
war  correspondent  of  the  Tribune  in  Virginia,  and  wrote 


284 


xYORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


from   the    field   letters  that    gave  the    writer    fame,  and 
have  served  for  history. 

While  in  the  service  of  the  Tribune,  at  the  special  re- 
quest of  Jay  Cooke,  the  Government's  fiscal  agent,  Mr. 
Greeley  detached  Wilkcson  to  aid  the  sale  of  the  war 
loans  of  5-20,  10-40  and  7-30  bonds.  He  did  this  by  using 
nearly  all  the  newspapers  of  the  United  States,  and  em- 
ploying liberally  the  Associated  Press  and  telegraph.  It 
was  the  only  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  that 
so  vast  an  agency  to  populari;:e  and  accomplish  a  public 
measure  was  committed  to  the  hands  of  one  man.  Before 
this,  and  way  back  in  1854,  Governor  Seward,  then  in 
his  political  prime  as  the  radical  leader  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  applied  to  Mr.  Wilkeson  to  block  out  a 
speech  for  him  on  a  subject  he  frankly  confessed  he 
knew  nothing  about,  and  concerning  a  country  then  un- 
known to  the  Government,  and,  among  white  men,  known 
only  to  fur  traders  and  trappers — a  practicable  route 
for  a  paying  railroad  across  the  continent  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  His  study  of  this  new  theme  and  preparation 
of  the  speech  so  impressed  Mr.  Wilkeson's  reason  and  im- 
agination, that,  when  in  December,  1868,  the  agents  of  the 
owners  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  charter,  then 
applicants  to  Congress  for  a  money  subsidy,  applied  to 
him  for  help  in  a  crisis  of  their  affairs,  he  easily  consented, 
and,  without  intending  to  do  so,tiedhimself  for  life  to  their 
enterprise.  Senate  Bill  No.  889,  to  subsidize  the  North- 
ern Pacific  and  other  transcontinental  roads,  had  been 
considered  in  committee,  and  was  to  be  favorably  reported 
by  a  large  majority  of  its  members.  The  hostile  influence 
of  rival  lines  was  sufficient  to  give  rise  to  an  adverse  and 
most  damaging  dissent  by  the  minority  of  the  committee, 
designed  to  anticipate  and  nullify  the  recommendation 
of  the  majority.  The  service  Mr.  Wilkeson  was  begged 
to  render  was  to  write  a  report  for  the  majority  to  ac- 


BIOGRA PHICA L    SKE  TCHES. 


^85 


company  the  bill  they  wc.c  to  recommend,  and,  in  it,  to 
overthrow  the  statements  and  conclusions  of  the  minority. 
The  result  was  the  len|^thy  Senate  Report  No.  219,  3d 
session,  40th  Congress.  It  was  signed  by  six  members  of 
the  committee  of  nine,  without  the  alteration  of  a  word, 
and  from  that  day  to  this  lias  been  an  authority  and 
manual  in  Washinn;ton. 

Mr.  Wilkeson's  second  service  to  the  nearly  moribund 
Northern  Pacific  enterprise  was  to  induce  Jay  Cooke  to 
listen  to  proposals  from  the  owners  of  the  charter  to  act 
as  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  Company  to  provide  money  to 
build  its  road  and  telegraph  line,  by  selling  the  Company's 
bonds.  Mr.  Cooke's  splendid  success  as  the  fiscal  agent 
of  the  Government  in  the  war,  and  his  reputation 
in  Europe  as  well  as  America,  indicated  him  to  Mr. 
Wilkeson  as  the  fittest  man  in  the  nation  to  undertake 
this  work.  As  the  result  of  the  negotiations  which  Mr. 
Wilkeson  inaugurated,  Mr.  Cooke  threw  hims«lf,  soul, 
body  and  estate,  into  the  enterprise.  It  is  due  to  him 
to  say  that,  almost  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  he 
stood  alone  in  this  vast  undertaking  amid  his  copartners 
in  the  four  banking  houses  which  he  founded  in  Wash- 
ington, Philadelphia,  New  York  and  London — alone  and 
unsupported  save  by  his  brothers  and  his  junior  copart- 
ner, George  Thomas.  When  Mr.  Wilkeson  authorized 
this  statement,  he  said:  "  No  history  of  Jay  Cooke's  con- 
nection with  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  scheme  will  do 
him  justice  which  does  not  recognize  the  double  load  put 
on  him  by  the  reluctance  and  opposition  of  the  strongest 
and  richest  of  his  copartners." 

A  condition  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  contract  with  the 
owners  of  the  Northern  Pacific  charter  was,  that  they 
should  have  the  right  to  send  their  own  engineer  over  the 
proposed  route  of  the  road,  to  report,  first,  if  it  was  prac- 
ticable, and  second,  if  the  country  would  support  the  road 


286 


NORTHERN  FACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


when  built.  When  this  preliminary  reconnoissance  was 
organized,  Mr.  Wilkcson  joined  it  as  "  historian,"  at  the 
request  of  Jay  Cooke  and  of  the  owners  of  the  enterprise, 
and  for  his  necessary  education  in  the  topography,  soils, 
climate  and  resources  of  the  regions,  the  popularization 
of  v.'hich  with  his  pen,  as  hf:  had  popularized  the  7-30 
loan,  was  the  work  assigned  to  him  in  the  corporation 
whose  secretary  it  was  already  arranged  that  he  should 
be.  An  account  of  this  reconnoissance  has  been  given  in 
another  chapter.  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  accepted  the  fiscal 
agency  to  provide  the  means  to  build  the  road,  and  the 
*'  historian  of  the  expedition  "  quit  journalism  and  joined 
himself  for  life  to  the  project  of  a  Pacific  railroad  on  the 
northern  route.  He  has  uninterruptedly  held  the  office 
of  secretary  of  the  Company  since  he  was  elected  to  it  in 
March,  1870.  The  standard  and  permanent  literature  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Company  up  to  1882  was  Samuel 
Wilkcson's  work,  as  was  nearly  all  the  newspaper  writing 
to  protect  and  promote  the  enterprise,  up  to  1883. 

George  Gray,  the  general  counsel  of  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific Company,  was  born  in  the  County  Tyrone,  Ireland. 
He  received  a  literary,  mathematical,  and  classical  educa- 
tion, which  he  finished  at  Portora  College,  near  the  historic 
town  of  Enniskillen.in  the  County  of  Fermanagh,  and  came 
to  the  United  States  when  he  attained  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years.  He  settled  at  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan, 
where  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  became  a  partner 
of  the  Hon.  S.  L.  Wither,  the  present  United  States 
Judge  of  the  Western  District  of  Michigan.  The  firm  of 
Withey  &  Gray,  besides  having  a  large  general  practice, 
were  counsel  for  the  Grand  Rapids  and  Indiana  Railroad 
Company  until  the  commencement  of  the  civil  war  put  a 
stop  to  the  construction  of  the  road.  i\Ir.  Gray  entered 
the  military  service  of  his  adopted  country  as  a  volun- 
teer, and  commanded  the  Sixth  Regiment  of  Michigan 


B I  OCR  A  PIIICA  L   SKE  TCIIES. 


287 


Cavalry,  which  formed  part  of  Custer's  Brigade  in  Kil- 
patrick's  Division  of  tlie  Cavalry  Corps  of  the  Army  of 
th*^  Potomac.  In  consequence  of  disability  caused  by  in- 
juries received  in  the  service  while  in  command  of  the 
Brigade,  in  1864,  he  was  honorably  discharged.  As  soon 
as  his  health  permitted  he  returned  to  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  which  at  once  became  quite  extensive,  and  he 
was  retained  in  nearly  every  important  case  in  the  Fed- 
eral and  State  courts  in  the  western  part  of  the  State. 
He  also  resumed  the  position  of  counsel  of  the  Grand 
Rapids  and  Indiana  Railroad  Company,  and  was  instru- 
mental in  placing  that  corporation  on  so  sound  a  legal  basis, 
by  saving  its  land  grant  and  defeating  the  efforts  of  rival 
railroad  companies  to  force  it  into  bankruptcy  and  disso- 
lution, that  it  was  enabled  readily  to  obtain  the  necessary 
means  for  the  construction  and  completion  of  its  road, 
only  twenty  miles  of  which  had  been  completed  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  The  road  was  fully  completed  and 
equipped  by  the  Continental  Improvement  Company,  of 
which  General  George  W.  Cass  was  president,  under  a 
contract  made  with  a  receiver  appointed  by  the  United 
States  Circuit  Courts  for  the  District  of  Indiana  and  West- 
ern District  of  Michigan.  During  all  the  transitions  of 
that  railroad  company  from  a  condition  of  utter  insol- 
vency to  one  of  complete  prosperity.  Colonel  Gray  was 
its  sole  counsel  in  the  State  of  Michigan. 

When  General  Cass  became  president  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  and  Hon.  Wm.  A.  How- 
ard its  land  commissioner,  they  invited  Colonel  Gray  to 
take  the  position  of  attorney  of  the  Company.  Mr. 
Howard  had  been  also  the  land  commissioner  of  the 
Grand  Rapids  and  Indiana  Railroad  Company.  Colonel 
Gray  accepted  the  employment,  and  removed  to  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  where  he  remained  until  called  to  New  York 
to  take  charge  of  the  legal  part  of  the  proceedings  for  the 


288 


A'ORTnEKN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


reorganization  of  the  Company.  These  proceedings, 
whicli  had  been  begun  before  liis  arrival,  were  taken 
in  charge  by  him  and  carried  forward  to  such  a  speed}- 
and  satisfactory  conckision  as  to  gain  for  him  the  hc.-ir^y 
acknowledgments  of  the  directors,  who  felt  that  he  had 
saved  the  Company  great  expense,  and  prevented  de- 
lays which  might  have  hindered  its  reorganization  for 
years.  Colonel  Gray  was  elected  general  counsel  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Company  in  September,  1875,  and  has 
since  had  the  management  of  its  legal  affairs,  acting  as 
attorney  as  well  as  counsel  in  all  important  matters  com- 
ing before  the  courts,  and  also  before  the  Government  de- 
partments at  Washington  in  which  the  interests  of  the 
Company  are  concerned,  and  preparing  the  Company's 
mortgages,  leases  and  contracts.  He  has  also  frequently 
appeared  before  the  Pacific  Railroad  Committees  of  the 
two  houses  of  Congress  as  the  representative  of  the  Com- 
pany, defending  its  chartered  rights  against  unjust  ag- 
gression. Soon  after  he  became  general  counsel  a  serious 
question  arose  concerning  the  Indian  reservations  lying 
within  the  limits  of  the  Company's  land  grant.  The  Sis- 
seton  and  Wahpeton  Sioux  claimed  all  the  rich  lands  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  now  a  vast  and 
highly  productive  wheat  field.  Their  title  or  claim  to  title 
was  extinguished  by  treaty,  but  the  Interior  Department 
was  disposed  to  hold  that  the  lands  extending  from 
Fargo  to  Jamestown  did  not  inure  to  the  railroad  Com- 
pany, because  the  Indian  possessory  title  had  not  been 
extinguished  at  the  date  the  grant  was  made.  Colonel 
Gray  argued  the  question  before  the  Secretary  of  the  Inte- 
rior and  the  Assistant  Attorney-General,  and  succeeded  in 
getting  a  decision  which  saved  to  the  Company  the  be^^t 
area  of  land  within  the  entire  grant.  If  the  matter  had 
been  decided  according  to  the  preconceived  opinion  of 
the  department,  the  Company  would  have  been  deprived 


BIOGRA  Fine  A  L    SKK  TCIIES, 


289 


not  only  of  its  Red  River  Valley  lands,  but  of  those 
lying  within  the  bounds  of  the  immense  Indian  reserva- 
tions west  of  the  Missouri,  and  this,  too,  in  the  face 
of  the  fact  that  Congress  had  bound  the  Government  in 
the  charter  of  the  Northern  Pacific  to  extinguish  all  In- 
dian titles  to  land  within  the  limits  of  the  grant  to  the 
Company. 

One  more  matter  of  great  importance  in  which  Colonel 
Gray  rendered  conspicuous  service  mry  properly  be  men- 
tioned here.  In  May,  1879,  the  C  mpany  filed  its  map  of 
the  amended  line  of  the  Cascade  branch  in  Washington 
Territory.  At  the  same  time  it  offered  for  filing  its  mort- 
gage on  the  Missouri  Division.  Shortly  afterwards  it  re- 
cc^ived  notice  from  the  Interior  Department  that  the 
question  was  under  consideration  whether,  in  conso 
quence  of  the  alleged  expiration  of  the  time  prescribed  ijy 
law  for  the  completion  of  the  road,  the  Company  had  any 
rights  which  the  Department  could  recognize.  At  thih- 
time  the  Con^  any  had  sold  its  bonds,  and  was  proceeding 
to  construct  its  road  beyond  the  Missouri,  yet  the  Govern- 
ment appeared  determined,  by  refusing  to  file  its  mortgage, 
which  rested  in  part  on  its  land  grant,  to  invalidate  that 
instrument  and  the  bonds  issued  under  it.  The  emer- 
gency was  of  the  most  serious  character.  Colonel  Gray 
hastened  to  Washington,  and  finding  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  Mr.  Schurz  and  the  Assistant  Attorney-General 
for  the  Department  of  the  Interior  predisposed  to  decide 
the  question  against  the  Company,  insisted  upon  a  hear- 
ing before  the  Attorney-General,  Mr.  Devens.  This  was 
accorded,  and  the  three  officials  heard  Colonel  Gray's  ar- 
gument, which  was  so  conclusive  that  a  decision  was  given 
not  only  that  the  time  specified  in  the  charter  of  the 
Company  and  the  amendments  thereto  had  not  expired, 
but  also  that  whether  it  had  expired  or  not  was  a  matter 
of  no  consequence,  because  the  rights  of  the  Company 
19 


■*■■ 


290 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


were  not  forfeited  b*  such  expiration,  but  continued  as  of 
the  same  force  and  validity  as  when  the  grant  was  made 
and  accepted  by  the  Company.  Thus  Colonel  Gray  suc- 
ceeded in  rescuing  the  Company  from  the  grave  disaster 
which  threatened  it  at  Washington,  and  which  if  not 
averted  would  have  prevented  the  curppletion  of  its  trans- 
continental line.  The  board  of  directors  by  special  vote 
showed  their  appreciation  of  the  great  professional  ser- 
vice rendered  by  him  in  this  connection. 

Thomas  Fletcher  Oakes,  vice-president  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  since  1881,  is  a  native  of  Boston,  and  is  about 
forty  years  of  age.  He  was  educated  at  the  public 
schools  of  that  city,  and  under  private  tutors.  In  1863 
he  accepted  an  offer  from  eastern  capitalists  who  were 
the  principal  owners  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad  to 
become  connected  with  that  enterprise;  then  known 
as  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad — Eastern  Division.  He 
was  at  first  associated  with  Samuel  Hallett  &  Co.,  con- 
tractors for  the  construction  of  the  road.  He  continued 
in  the  service  of  that  Company  until  1879,  filling  suc- 
cessively the  positions  of  purchasing  agent,  general 
freight  agent,  general  superintendent  and  vice-president. 
He  was  general  superintendent  at  the  time  he  sev- 
ered his  connection  with  the  Kansas  Pacific,  and  during 
the  receivership  of  Mr.  Villard,  leaving  the  Company's 
service  at  its  termination.  From  the  Kansas  Pacific 
Mr.  Oakes  went  into  the  service  of  the  Kansas  City, 
Fort  Scott  and  Gulf,  and  Kansas  City,  Lawrence  and 
Southern  Kansas  Railroad  Companies,  in  the  interest 
of  the  Boston  owners,  among  whom  were  the  late 
Nathaniel  Thayer,  H.  H.  Hunnewell,  William  F.  Weld, 
since  deceased,  and  others.  This  sysiem  of  lines,  with 
its  branches,  comprised  about  600  miles  of  railroad. 
He  remained  with  these  companies  about  one  year,  leav- 
ing their  service  in  May,  1880,  when   he  went  to  Oregon 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 


291 


on  Mr.  Villard's  invitation,  and  assumed  the  managership 
of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company,  which 
had  shortly  before  been  organized.  He  remained  with 
this  Company  until  the  control  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Villard  and  his  associates, 
when  he  came  to  New  York  and  was  elected  vice-presi- 
dent in  June,  1881.  Ho  has  since  continued  in  that 
capacity.  Mr.  Oakes  may  be  regarded  as  Mr.  Villard's 
executive  officer,  more  particularly  in  charge  of  the  oper- 
ating and  constructing  departments,  his  long  experience 
in  both  especially  fitting  him  for  such  work. 

At  the  date  Mr.  Oakes  assumed  the  duties  of  vice-presi- 
dent, the  end  of  track  on  the  Eastern  Division  was  at 
Dickinson,  Dakota,  and  on  the  Western  Division  at 
Sprague,  Washington  Territory,  the  gap  remaining  to  be 
built  being  about  1,000  miles.  During  a  period  of  but  lit- 
tle over  two  years  this  immense  length  of  track,  embracing 
the  most  difficult  portions  of  the  work  on  the  entire  line, 
including  the  mountain  divisions  and  the  two  great  tun- 
nels, has  been  constructed  under  his  direction.  He  has  aiso 
made  a  complete  reorganization  of  the  system  of  opera- 
tion which  greatly  increased  its  effectiveness.  One  of 
the  first  steps  taken  by  Mr.  Oakes  on  assuming  his  duties 
was  a  tour  of  inspection  along  the  located  line  between 
the  two  ends  of  the  track,  which  was  undertaken  and 
accomplished  mainly  in  the  saddle  in  August  and  Sep- 
tember, 1 88 1.  Some  forty  days  were  required  for  this  in- 
spection, and  the  information  gathered  proved  of  great 
value  to  the  Company  in  its  financial  and  construction 
operations.  Mr.  Oakes  likewise  has  charge  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  branch  lines  of  the  Oregon  and  Trans- 
continental Company,  which  are  built  under  the  author- 
ity and  direction  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany. The  aggregate  length  of  road  constructed  under* 
Mr.  Oakes'  direction,  including  the  lines  of  the  Northern 


H 


i    .  ■■'■ 

^^ 

292 


NORTHEJiiV  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Pacific,  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  and  Oregon  and 
Transcontinental  Companies,  from  the  time  he  assumed 
the  duties  of  the  vice-presidency  in  June,  1881,  to  the 
completion  of  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  a 
period  of  two  years  and  two  months,  is  a  little  over  2,000 
miles — a  record  rarely  equaled. 


)regon  and 
e  assumed 
8 1,  to  the 
Pacific,  a 
over  2,000 


^a 


•I  '■■■I- 


3 

"3 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


> 


o 


KELATIOXS    OF  THE    NORTHERN    PACIFIC   WITH    OTHER 

COMPANIES. 

The  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad — Purchase  of  a  Half  Interest  in 
the  Line  from  Duluth  to  Thomson  Junction — Lease  of  the  Entire  Road, 
with  its  Leased  Lines — Lease  Surrendered — The  St.  Paul  and  Pacific 
Company  and  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  First  Division — A  Controlling 
Stock  Interest  Acquired  by  the  Northern  Pacific — Retransfer  of  the  First 
Division — Foreclosure  and  Sale  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific — Tlie  St. 
Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  Company  Formed — Tlie  Western  Rail- 
road Company  of  Minnesota — The  Northern  Pacific,  Fergus  Falls  and 
I'lack  Hills  Railroad  Company — Its  Slock  Purchased  by  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company — The  Cassclton  Branch — The  Little  Falls  and  Dakota 
Railroad  Company — Other  Branches — Arrangement  with  llic  Oregon  and 
Transcontinental  Company  for  the  Building  of  Branch  Lines. 

Through  leases,  joint  ownership  and  ownership  of  con- 
trolling stock  interests,  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  has 
sustained  relations  to  other  railway  corporations  some 
account  of  which  should  properly  find  place  in  this  his- 
tory. It  has  been  thought  best  to  make  these  relations 
the  subject  of  a  separate  chapter,  after  referring  to  them 
only  in  an  incidental  way  in  the  preceding  pages  of  the 
work. 

The  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad  was  con. 
structed  from  Duluth  to  St.  Paul  under  authority  of  an 
act  of  the  Legislature  of  Minnesota.  From  Duluth  the  road 
runs  along  the  north  bank  of  the  St.  Louis  River,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  twenty-three  miles,  to  Thomson  in  Carlcton 
County.  This  part  of  the  line  was  constructed  through 
a  rough  and  difficult  country,  broken  by  numerous  and 
deep  ravines,  requiring  the  erection  of  lofty  and  expen- 
sive trestles.     The  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific 


294 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Railroad  was  begun  in  1870,  at  a  point  on  the  Lake  Su- 
perior and  Mississippi  Railroad  about  one  mile  south  of 
Thomson,  and  was  thence  extqnded  westvvardly ;  this 
point  is  known  as  "Thomson  Ji.nction,"  or  "  Northern 
Pacific  Junction."  To  obtain  immediate  access  to  the 
Lake,  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  purchased 
an  undivided  half  of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Rail- 
road from  the  Junction  to  its  terminus  in  Duluth  with  cer- 
tain other  property  rights  and  casements  in  Duluth,  and  on 
the  Bay  of  Superior,  for  $500,000,  payable  in  gold  coin 
when  the  first  mortgage  bonds  of  that  Company  would 
become  due,  with  interest  in  the  meantime  at  the  rate  of 
seven  per  cent,  per  annum,  payable  semi-annually  in  gold 
coin.  The  deed  of  the  property  was  dated  January  i, 
1S71,  and  was  conditional  on  the  punctual  payment 
of  the  purchase  money  and  interest. 

Subsequently  the  Northern  Pacific  took  a  lease  of  the 
entire  line  of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad, 
and  an  assignment  of  several  traffic  contracts  and  leases 
held  by  that  Company,  among  which  were  a  lease  of  the 
Stillwater  and  St.  Paul  Railroad,  extending  from  Still- 
■water,  on  the  St.  Croix  River,  to  White  Bear  Lake,  a  sta- 
tion on  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad;  a 
lease  of  the  Minneapolis  and  Duluth  Railroad,  extending 
from  Minneapolis  to  White  Bear  Lake  ;  and  a  lease  of  tlic 
Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  Railway,  extending  from  Min- 
neapolis to  a  point  on  the  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City  Rail- 
road, then  only  partly  constructed.  The  lease  of  the  Lake 
Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad  was  dated  May  i,  1872, 
and  was  for  the  term  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
years,  which  was  also  the  term  of  the  assigned  leases.  The 
rental  of  the  leased  railroads  was  to  be  thirty  per  cent, 
of  their  gross  earnings ;  and  it  was  provided  and  agreed 
that  in  case  that  percentage  of  the  gross  earnings  should 
in  any  six  months  be  insufficient  to  pay  the  interest  and 


RELATIONS  OF   THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC. 


295 


sinking  fund  charges  on  the  leased  roads,  the  lessee  should 
take  up  and  hold  an  amount  of  coupons  for  interest  on 
the  first  mortgage  bonds  of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mis- 
sissippi Railroad  Company  equal  to  the  deficiency. 

By  agreement  of  the  parties  the  Northern  Pacific  Com- 
pany, in  1874,  surrendered  all  these  leases.  Coupons 
of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  Railroad  Com- 
pany to  the  amount  of  $183,700,  taken  up  under  the 
provision  of  the  lease,  remained  on  its  hands.  In  1877, 
the  first  mortgage  of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi 
Railroad  Company  was  foreclosed,  and  by  the  decree  of 
foreclosure  the  coupons  so  held  by  the  Northern  Pacific 
Company  were  adjudged  to  be  a  valid  lien  on  the  mort- 
gaged property ;  and  it  was  also  decreed,  upon  stipulation 
of  all  the  parties  to  the  suit,  that  the  Northern  Pacific 
might  pay  the  entire  purchase  price  of  the  undivided 
half  of  the  railroad  from  the  Junction  to  Uuluth, 
in  any  amounts,  from  time  to  time,  prior  to  January  1st, 
1897,  in  the  securities  of  the  new  organizations  for 
which  the  bonds  and  coupons  of  the  Lake  Superior 
and  Mississippi  Railroad  Company  might  be  exchanged. 
The  coupons  held  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  were 
exchanged  for  preferred  stock  of  the  new  organization, 
and  the  latter  was  at  once  paid  over  as  part  of  the 
purchase  money.  The  remainder  was  very  soon  afterward 
paid  in  like  securities,  and  thereupon  the  St.  Paul  and 
Duluth  Railroad  Company  (the  successor  of  the  Lake 
Superior  and  Mississippi)  executed  an  absolute  convey- 
ance to  the  Northern  Pacific  of  the  undivided  half  of  the 
railroad  from  the  Junction  to  Duluth,  and  of  the  other 
property  mentioned,  free  from  all  condition  and  clear  of 
all  encumbrance.  This  part  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Duluth 
Railroad  is  maintained  at  the  joint  expense  of  both  com- 
panies or  a  wheelage  basis. 

The  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company  was  incor- 


■pp 


296 


NORTHER.V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


porated  by  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature  of  Minnesota, 
and  was  authorized  to  construct,  maintain  and  operate  a 
railroad  from  Stillwater,  by  way  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Anthony 
and  Minneapolis,  to  Breckenridge,  a  point  on  the  western 
boundary  of  the  State,  with  a  branch  from  St.  Anthony, 
(now  East  Minneapolis),  via  Anoka,  St.  Cloud  and  Crow 
Wing,  to  St.  Vincent,  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  near 
the  International  Boundary.  Under  authority  of  an  act  of 
the  State  Legislature,  approved  February  6,  1864,  the  cor- 
poration made  a  division  of  its  organization,  whereby  the 
lines  from  St.  Paul  to  Watab,  in  the  County  of  Benton, 
a  distance  of  about  eighty  miles,  and  from  St.  Anthony 
to  Breckenridge,  about  two  hundred  and  ten  miles, 
became  what  was  afterwards  known  as  the  "First 
Division  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad,"  the 
parent  Company  retaining  the  original  name  and  the  re- 
maining lines  and  parts  of  lines  it  was  authorized  by  law 
to  construct. 

An  agreement  was  made  by  and  between  the  St.  Paul 
and  Pacific  Company  and  E.  B.  Litchfield,  of  Brooklyn, 
to  whom  it  had  issued  eight  thousand  five  hundred 
shares  of  Preferred  and  Special  stock,  pertaining  to  the 
lin(^  from  St.  Paul  to  Watab,  and  from  St.  Anthony  to 
Breckenridge,  in  and  by  which  the  Company  sold  and 
transferred  to  Litchfield  the  lines  last  above  mentioned, 
and  all  things,  including  the  land  grant,  appertaining 
thereto,  with  the  right  to  increase  the  capital  stock  to  the 
full  cost  of  the  railroad  ;  and  in  consideration  thereof  he 
undertook  and  agreed  to  build  and  complete  the  lines  of 
road  so  conveyed,  and  to  choose  a  board  of  directors 
therefor,  under  the  name  of  "  The  First  Division  of  the 
St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company."  Early  in  the 
year  1870,  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  pur- 
chased from  E.  Darwin  Litchfield,  of  London,  to  whom 
E.  B.  Litchfield  had  assigned  and  transferred  all  his  rights 


RELATIONS  OF    THE   NORTHERN  PACIFIC. 


29; 


and  interests  therein,  the  capital  stock  of  the  First  Divis- 
ion Company,  and  its  railroads,  with  all  the  franchises, 
property,  including  the  land  grant,  rolling  stock  and 
effects  of  every  kind  belonging  thereto,  for  $500,000 
in  money,  and  $1,500,000  in  second  mortgage  bonds  of 
the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Company,  the  stock  and  fran- 
chises of  which  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  had  pre- 
viously acquired.  The  First  Division  was  at  that  time 
completed  from  St.  Paul  to  Sauk  Rapids,  seventy-five 
miles,  and  from  St.  Anthony  to  Chippewa,  one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles,  and  the  grading  was  done  from  Chip- 
pewa to  Breckenridge,  ninety  miles. 

The  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company  made 
various  changes  of  its  lines,  so  that  eventually  they  con- 
sisted of  a  line  from  Watab  to  Brainerd,  on  the  line  of 
the  Northern  and  Pacific  Railroad,  and  called  the 
"  Brainerd  Branch,"  and  from  St.  Cloud  to  St.  Vincent, 
crossing  the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  rt  Glyndon,  and 
known  as  the  *'  St.  Vincent  Extension."  No  part  of 
these  lines  had  been  constructed  in  1870.  In  April 
of  that  year  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  pur- 
chased the  entire  capital  stock  of  the  last  named  Company, 
except  a  few  outstanding  shares,  for  $75,000  in  the  first 
mortgage  bonds  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  and 
also,  as  part  of  the  consideration,  assumed  to  pay  the 
debts  of  that  Company  to  the  amount  of  $50,000. 

The  First  Division  Company  and  the  St.  Paul  and  Pa- 
cific Company,  each  to  provide  for  the  construction  and 
completion  of  their  respective  lines  of  railroad,  issued 
bonds  secured  by  mortgages  upon  their  respective  proper- 
tics  and  franchises,  and  let  the  work  of  construction  to 
contractors.  The  First  Division  was  completed  to 
Breckenridge.  Of  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  lines  the 
construction  of  the  St.  Vincent  extension  was  completed 
from  St.  Cloud  to  Sauk  Centre,  the  grade  was  done  to 


I-    'A 


298 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Alexandria,  together  with  a  large  part  of  the  grade 
north  of  Glyndon.  The  grade  between  Watab  and  Brain- 
erd,  the  Brainerd  Branch,  was  partly  done.  All  work  on 
the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  lines  was  suspended  in  1873,  in 
consequence  of  the  financial  agents  of  the  Company 
in  Amsterdam  reporting  their  inability  to  negotiate  any 
more  of  the  bonds.  In  May,  1874,  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  being  unable  to  comply  with  the  terms 
of  its  purchase  of  the  First  Division  lines,  retransferrcd  to 
Mr.  Litchfield  the  capital  stock,  and  he  thereupon  assumed 
the  control  and  management  of  the  railroads  and  property 
of  the  First  Division  Company.  By  reason  of  default  in 
the  payment  of  interest  on  the  bonds  of  the  St.  Paul 
and  Pacific  Railway  Company,  the  mortgage  on  its  prop- 
erty, rights  and  franchises  was  foreclosed,  and  on  decree 
and  sale  the  capital  stock  held  by  the  Northern  Pacific 
was  extinguished.  The  properties  and  franchises  of  both 
the  First  Division  Company  and  the  St.  Paul  and  Pa- 
cific Company  were  acquired  by  the  bondholders,  who 
thereupon  organized  as  a  corporation  by  the  name  of  the 
Saint  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  Railway  Com- 
pany. A  traffic  contract  was  made  and  entered  into  by 
the  Northern  Pacific  and  the  Manitoba  Companies,  dated 
the  1st  day  of  August,  1879,  by  which,  among  other  things, 
the  Northern  Pacific  obtained  the  right  to  the  perpetual 
joint  use  of  the  other  Company's  road  from  Sauk  Rapids, 
where  it  connects  with  the  Western  Railroad  of  Min- 
nesota, to  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  and  of  terminal 
facilities  at  St.  Paul. 

The  Western  Railroad  Company  of  Minnesota  is  a  cor- 
poration created  in  1874,  and  existing  under  the  general 
laws  of  that  State.  Previously  to  1877  it  had  constructed 
no  railroad.  By  an  act  of  the  State  Legislature  approved 
March  i,  1877,  all  the  rights,  franchises,  privileges  and 
property,  including  the  land  grant,  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Pa- 


RELATIONS  OF   THE  NORTHERX  PACHIC. 


-99 


cine  Railroad  Company  appertaining  to  its  line  from 
Watab  to  Braincrd,  known  as  the  "  Brainerd  Branch," 
were  forfeited  to  the  State,  and  were  offered  to  a  cor- 
poration to  be  formed  by,  or  in  tlie  interest  of,  a 
majority  of  the  bondholders.  The  conditions  were  that 
such  offer  should  be  accepted  and  security  given  by 
the  1st  day  of  May  following;  failing  in  which,  any 
corporation  having  authority  to  build  a  railroad  in  the 
State  might  succeed  to  and  acquire  the  right  to  con- 
struct and  complete  the  Brainerd  Branch,  on  filing  notice 
of  its  intention  to  do  so,  and  depositing  $15,000  with 
the  State  treasurer  as  a  guaranty  for  the  performance  of 
its  undertaking.  On  compliance  with  the  provisions  of 
the  act,  and  upon  the  completion  of  the  road,  or  any  part 
thereof,  not  less  than  ten  continuous  miles  in  length, 
such  Company  should  immediately  become  vested  with  all 
the  rights,  privileges,  franchises,  lands,  property  and 
immunities  appertaining  to  the  road  so  completed.  The 
act  required  the  work  to  be  commenced  within  thirty  days 
after  the  filing  of  the  notice, and  to  be  completed  within  one 
year  thereafter.  The  bondholders  having  failed  to  accept 
the  offer,  the  Western  Railroad  Company  of  Minnesota 
gave  notice  of  its  desire  to  build  the  road,  deposited 
the  security,  began  the  work,  and  by  the  ist  day  of 
November,  1877,  completed  the  road  from  Brainerd  to 
Watab,  and  thence  extended  it  to  Sauk  Rapids,  the 
terminus  of  the  branch  of  the  First  Division  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad,  thus  making  a  through  railroad 
connection  from  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  to  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad  at  Brainerd.  In  May,  1878,  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  took  a  lease  of  the 
Western  Railroad  for  99  years,  at  an  annual  rental,  for 
the  first  five  years,  of  thirty-five  per  cent.,  and  for  the 
remainder  of  the  term  of  forty  per  cent.,  of  the  gross 
earnings. 


300 


xort///:kx  pacific  railroad. 


This  lease,  together  with  the  right  obtained,  as  before 
mentioned,  to  use  the  track  of  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis 
and  Manitoba  Railway  Company  from  Sauk  Rapids, 
secured  to  the  Northern  Pacific  a  direct  inlet  from  its 
main  line  to  the  cities  of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul.  With 
the  extension  of  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
across  the  continent,  and  the  steady  growth  of  its  traffic, 
it  soon  became  apparent,  however,  that  it  would  be  more 
desirable  for  it  to  control  a  line  of  its  own  into  those  im- 
portant commercial  and  industrial  centres.  In  connection 
with  the  agreement  for  an  exchange  of  lines  hereafter 
referred  to,  the  Northern  Pacific  obtained,  therefore,  a 
modification  of  the  contract  giving  it  the  right  to  use  the 
St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  Company's  track 
from  Sauk  Rapids,  by  which  modification  in  lieu  of  the 
right  of  track  it  acquired  a  right  of  way  43  feet  in  width 
from  Sauk  Rapids  to  Minneapolis,  on  and  over  which  to 
extend  the  Western  Minnesota  line  into  Minneapolis. 
With  a  view  to  the  construction  of  this  extension,  and  to 
the  creation  of  commensurate  terminal  facilities  for  its 
transcontinental  traffic  both  in  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul, 
the  Northern  Pacific  came  to  an  understanding  with  the 
Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company  under  which  the 
latter  should  acquire  the  entire  stock  of  the  Western 
Minnesota  Company  not  owned  by  the  Northern  Pacific, 
and  that  thereupon  the  Western  Minnesota  should  be 
reorganized  in  order  to  enlarge  its  corporate  powers  in 
accordance  with  the  enlarged  sphere  of  operation  pro- 
posed for  it.  The  Oregon  and  Transconti.iental  Com- 
pany, having  purchased  all  the  outstanding  stock,  the 
reorganization  was  carried  out  by  the  filing  of  new  arti- 
cles of  incorporation,  under  which  the  name  of  the 
Company  was  changed  to  the  "  St.  Paul  and  Northern 
Pacific  Railway  Company,"  and  in  addition  to  the 
powers  the  corporation  originally  enjoyed  it  was  author- 


RELATIOXS  OF   THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC. 


301 


IS  before 
nneapolis 
Rapids, 
;  from  its 
ul.    With 
rn  I'acific 
its  traffic, 
■\  be  more 
those  im- 
onnection 
hereafter 
lercfore,  a 
to  use  the 
ny's  track 
lieu  of  the 
2t  in  width 
:r  which  to 
inneapolis. 
ion,  and  to 
ties  for  its 
,d  St.  Paul, 
cT  with  the 
which  the 
e  Western 
rn  Pacific, 
should  be 
powers  in 
■ation  pro- 
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stock,  the 
If  new  arti- 
lue   of  the 
Northern 
n   to    the 
as  author- 


ized to  construct  its  railroad  to  the  cities  of  Minneapolis 
and  St.  Paul,  as  well  as  several  branch  lines,  and  to  build, 
own  and  operate  elevators,  warehouses  and  other  facilities, 
terminal  and  otherwise,  for  the  operation  of  its  roads. 

The  reorganized  Company  entered  into  a  construction 
contract  with  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Com- 
pany, under  which  the  latter  Company  undertook  to 
extend  the  railroad  about  ninety-two  miles,  from  Sauk 
Rapids  to  Minneapolis,  including  a  bridge  across  the 
Mississippi  P.iver,  and  to  build  a  double  track  from  St. 
Paul  to  the  extensive  properties  of  the  Company,  about 
midway  between  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  It  further 
agreed  to  provide  terminal  improvements  to  accommo- 
date the  business  of  th?  more  than  3,000  miles  of  the 
transcontinental  system  A  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  upon  the  twenty  acres  at  Minneapolis  and  the 
three  hundred  and  eighty  acres  at  St.  Paul  owned  by  the 
St.  Paul  and  Northern  Pacific  Railway  Company,  including 
union  passenger  and  freight  stations,  round  houses,  ma- 
chine and  car  shops,  stock  yards,  general  freight  yards, 
elevators  and  other  required  facilities.  For  these  several 
purposes  the  St.  Paul  and  Northern  Pacific  Railway  Com- 
pany created  a  mortgage  under  which  the  immediate 
issue  of  $7,000,000  of  bonds  was  authorized  out,  of  which 
sufficient  bonds  are  to  be  reserved  for  the  retirement  of 
the  outstanding  issues  of  bonds  made  by  the  Western 
Railroad  Company  of  Minnesota,  now  amounting  to 
$673,000. 

The  St.  Paul  and  Northern  Pacific  Railway  Company 
further  entered  into  a  contract  and  lease  with  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad  Company  under  which  the  latter 
Company  takes  the  property  for  a  period  of  999  years 
from  February  1,  1883,  at  an  annual  rental  of  forty  per 
cent,  of  the  gross  earnings,  but  which  is  not  to  be  less  in 
any  year  than  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  the  annual  interest 


I     ; 


302 


NORTHERN  PACirrC  RAILROAD. 


on  the  then  outstanding  bonds  of  the  St.  Paul  and  North- 
ern Pacific  Railway  Company. 

The  Northern  Pacific,  I<"ergus  and  Black  Hills  Railroad 
Company  is  a  corporation  existing  under  the  laws  of  Min- 
nesota. The  name  of  the  corporation  at  first  was  the  Min- 
nesoia  Northern  Railroad  Company,  and  the  purpose  of 
its  projectors  was  to  construct  a  narrow  gauge  road  from 
the  village  of  Fergus  Falls  northeasterly  to  a  junction 
with  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  and  from  the  same 
place  westerly  to  a  junction  with  the  First  Division  of  the 
St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad  at  Breckenridge.  In  the 
original  articles  of  incorporation  the  business  of  the  Com- 
pany was  stated  to  be  the  construction  and  operation  of 
a  railroad  "  from  Fergus  Falls  in  Otter  Tail  County  to 
a  connection  with  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  and 
also  to  a  connection  with  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad 
by  such  route  as  may  be  determined  by  said  Minnesota 
Northern  Railroad  Company."  The  articles  were 
amended,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  the  State, 
so  as  to  enlarge  the  powers  of  the  corporation,  to 
state  its  purpose  with  greater  certainty,  and  to  change 
the  corporate  name.  It  became,  as  the  Northern  Pacific, 
Fergus  and  Black  Hills  Railroad  Company,  empowered 
to  construct,  complete,  own  and  operate  a  standard 
gauge  railroad  from  a  point  on  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  one  mile  west  of  Wadena  to  Fergus  Falls, 
thence  to  the  western  boundary  of  the  State,  and  thence 
to  Deadwood  in  Dakota  Territory,  known  as  the  main 
line,  with  branches  from  the  main  line  northwardly  up 
the  Pelican  Valley,  and  southwardly  to  Benson,  in  the 
county  of  Swift,  and  from  another  point  east  of  Fergus 
Falls  on  the  main  line  northerly  via  Otter  Tail  Lake, 
Perham,  and  Red  Lake  Falls  to  the  International  Bound- 
ary. The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  acquired 
all  the  capital  stock  of  the  Company.     Work  was  com- 


RELATIONS  OF   THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC. 


303 


menced  at  Wadena  in  the  spring  of  1881,  and  the  track 
reached  Breckcnridgc,  on  the  Red  River,  in  the  autumn  of 
1882.  A  branch  from  Fergus  Falls  to  Pelican  Rapids 
was  simultaneously  built.  The  Company  thereby  earned 
$200,000  of  bonds  of  Otter  Tail  County,  and  a  grant  of 
swamp  lands  said  to  be  of  the  extent  of  nearly  100,000 
acres.  Under  authority  of  a  law  of  Dakota  Territory 
the  construction  of  the  road  was  extended  into  that 
Territory  from  Wahpeton,  the  county  seat  of  Richland 
County,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Red  River  opposite 
Breckenridge,  for  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles  on  a 
graded  road-bed  made  by  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and 
Manitoba  Railway  Company,  and  purchased  from  that 
Company  in  pursuance  of  a  general  adjustment  of  the 
differences  between  that  Company  and  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific, under  which  there  was  an  exchange  of  lines,  result- 
ing in  making  the  system  of  the  Northern  Pacific  a 
strictly  cast  and  west  one,  and  that  of  the  other  Company 
a  north  and  south  one.  This  ]:)urcliase  was  accompanied 
by  a  sale  of  the  Pelican  Rapids  Branch  to  the  Manitoba 
Company.  The  Northern  Pacific,  Fergus,  and  Black 
Hills  Railroad  will  be  a  very  important  feeder  of  the 
Northern  Pacific. 

The  exchange  of  lines  between  the  two  companies 
included  also  the  transfer  of  the  ownership  to  the  Mani- 
toba Company  of  the  so-called,  Casselton  Branch,  which 
had  been  constructed  by  the  Casselton  Branch  Railroad 
Company,  and  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  Dakota, 
from  Casselton  on  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific, 
northward  a  distance  of  43  miles.  The  line  not  be- 
ing mortgaged,  and  ?11  the  stock  of  the  Company  being 
owned  by  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  transfer  was  an  easy 
matter. 

The  Little  Falls  and  Dakota  Railroad  Company  is  a 
corporation  organized  under  the  general  laws  of  the  State 


>4 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


of  Minnesota  to  construct  a  line  from  Little  Falls,  a  station 
on  the  Western  Minnesota  line,  to  the  western  boundary  of 
the  State.  The  building  of  the  line  entitled  the  Company 
to  a  grant  of  334,080  acres  of  overflown  lands  from  the 
State,  and  to  $164,800  county  bonds.  The  Oregon  and 
Transcontinental  Company  acquired  the  franchises  of 
the  Company,  and  the  line  was  built  from  Little  Falls, 
via  Sauk  Center,  to  Morris,  a  distance  of  88  miles,  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  1882.  At  Morris  it  intersects  the 
Breckenridge  main  line  of  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and 
Manitoba  Company,  and  connects  with  a  line  already 
constructed  thence  by  the  latter  Company  to  Brown's 
Valley.  An  agreement  was  effected  for  the  joint  use  of 
the  Brown's  Valley  line  by  both  companies. 

The  stock  of  the  Little  Falls  and  Dakota  Railroad,  the 
Northern  Pacific,  Fergus,  and  Black  Hills  Railroad,  and 
other  branches  of  the  Northern  Pacific  system  now  in 
progress  of  construction,  is  held  by  the  Oregon  and  Trans- 
continental Company  under  tripartite  contracts.  The 
terms  of  these  contracts  arc  that  the  Oregon  and  Trans- 
continental Company  shall  construct  the  branches  and 
take  their  bonds  at  the  rate  of  $20,000  per  mile  ;  that  the 
Northern  Pacific  shall  operate  the  branch  lines  and  pay 
after  the  expiration  of  two  years  from  the  commencement 
of  such  operation  six  per  cent,  annual  interest  on  the 
bonds,  and  one  per  cent,  per  annum  as  a  sinking  fund ; 
that  all  the  stock  shall  be  deposited  with  a  trust  com- 
pany, and  that  when  the  bonds  are  all  retired  the  stock 
shall  become  the  property  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Com- 
pany ;  in  the  meantime  this  Company  has  the  right  to  divi- 
dends and  of  voting  on  the  stock. 

The  branches  constructed,  or  in  process  of  construction, 
under  this  arrangement,  besides  the  two  above  named,  arc 
as  follows  :  the  extension  of  the  Western  Railroad  from 
Sauk  Rapids  to  St.  Paul ;  the  Fargo  and  Southwestern 


RELATIONS   OF    TilE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC. 


305 


Railroad  ;  the  Sanborn,  Cooperstown,  and  Turtle  Mount- 
ain Railroad  ;  the  Jamestown  and  Northern  Railroad  ; 
and  the  National  Park  Branch,  built  under  the  charter  of 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Railroad  Company  of  Montana. 
In  the  case  of  the  Columbia  and  Palouse  Railroad  in 
Washington  Territory,  the  amount  of  bonds,  owing  to 
the  expense  of  construction,  is  $30,000  per  mile,  and 
the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company  joins  the 
Northern  Pacific  in  the  contract  with  the  Oregon  and 
Transcontinental  Company,  and  assumes  one-half  of  the 
obligation  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  bonds,  and  sinking 
fund  charges. 

With  the  high  credit  commanded  by  the  securities  of  the 
Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company  in  the  financial 
market,  it  will  be  easy  to  provide  for  whatever  require- 
ments the  growth  of  the  regions  tributary  to  the  North- 
ern Pacific  may  create  in  the  way  of  extensions  of  the 
branches  alreatly  commenced  and  in  the  construction  of 
new  ones.  In  speaking  on  this  subject  President  Villard, 
in  his  report  to  the  stockholders  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  for  the  year  1881-82,  said : 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  growth  of  all  the  great 
Western  railroad  corporations  is  in  the  largest  measure 
due  to  the  gradual  construction  of  systems  of  tributary 
lines.  But  all  these  companies  succeeded  in  providing 
themselves  with  such  local  systems  only  through  the 
efforts,  sacrifices  and  embarrassments  of  years.  The 
Northern  Pacific  is,  and  will  probably  remain,  the  only 
Company  so  fortunate  as  to  command  that  source  of 
prosperity  to  the  fullest  extent,  and  practically  without 
financial  burdens,  in  the  early  stages  of  its  career. 


20 


Mi 


^m 


-5"i 


PART    II. 


THE    NORTHERN  PACIFIC  COUNTRY. 


$ 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

EASTERN    TERMINAL  CITIES    AND   LAKE    TORTS. 

A  Defect  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Charter — Lake  Superior  not  the  Proper 
Eastern  Terminus — A  Description  of  the  Twin  Cities  of  Minnesota — 
St.  Paul  the  Older  Place — Remarkahle  Recent  Growth  of  Minneapolis — 
Business  of  the  Two  Cities — Picturesque  Appearance  of  St.  Paul — Min- 
neapolis and  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony — Northern  Pacific  Offices  and 
Terminal  Facilities — The  Bay  of  .Superior — .\mbition  of  Both  Wiscon- 
sin and  Minnesota  to  Possess  a  Commercial  City  at  the  Head  of  Lake 
Superior — Superior  and  Duluth — Why  Duluth  was  Made  the  First  Lake 
Terminus  of  the  Northern  Pacific — The  Strife  About  the  Duluth  Canal 
and  Dike — Grt^wth  of  Duluth — Prospects  of  Superior — Ashland  a  Third 
Northern  Pacific  Port. 

The  charter  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  was 
defective  in  one  important  respect ;  it  provided  that  the 
road  should  begin  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior,  thus 
fixing  its  eastern  terminus  in  a  wilderness  at  the  end 
of  a  great  fresh-water  sea,  closed  to  navigation  by  ice 
for  five  months  of  the  year,  and  without  railway  com- 
munication.s.  The  lake  terminus  was  valuable  for  the 
traffic  in  coal  and  other  heavy  materials,  and  for  grain 
.shipments  eastward  to  the  seaboard;  but  if  no  other 
eastern  outlet  had  been  secured,  the  enterprise  would 
have  been  foredoomed  to  failure.  St.  Paul  was  the 
natural  starting-point  for  the  line,  being  the  furthest 
place  from  Chicago  reached  by  the  railway  system  of 
the  Northwest  at  the  time  the  charter  was  granted, 
and  a  town  of  sufficient  importance  to  afford  facilities 
for  construction  and  a  base  of  supplies.  We  have 
seen  in  previous  chapters  how  the  Northern  Pacific 
Directors  managed  to  remedy  the   mistake  of  Congress 


310 


XOKTJIEKX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


by  purchasing  the  stock  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific 
Company,  and  liow,  when  they  lost  their  hold  on  that 
corporation  in  a  time  of  financial  distress,  and  it  was 
reorganized  as  a  rival  interest,  they  secured  a  line  from 
their  main  road  at  Brainerd  to  Sauk  Rapids,  about 
half-way  to  St.  Paul,  and  made  a  contract  for  a  joint 
use  of  track  for  the  remainder  of  the  distance.  The 
increasing  business  of  the  Northern  Pacific  soon  rendered 
this  arrangement  inadequate,  and  an  independent  line 
to  Minneapolis  is  now  being  built  for  the  Company's 
use. 

These  two  cities,  of  equal  size  and  importance,  situated 
at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Mississippi  River,  so 
near  to  each  other  that  their  suburbs  almost  touch,  and 
destined  to  grow  together  and  form  a  metropolis  rivaling 
Chicago,  are  the  eastern  end  of  the  Northern  Pacific  sys- 
tem. They  are  of  nearly  equal  size,  the  people  of  each 
claiming  that  it  is  a  little  larger  than  the  other.  Prob- 
ably a  fair  estimate  of  their  population  in  the  summer 
of  1883  would  assign  to  each  75,000  inhabitants.  Their 
growth  on  parallel  lines  of  development,  with  business 
centres  less  than  ten  miles  apart,  affords  an  interesting 
and  unique  phenomenon.  Neither  is  in  any  sense  a  sub- 
urb or  dependency  of  the  other.  Each  is  a  true  city  in 
all  that  pertains  to  urban  life,  having  its  wholesale  trade, 
its  crowded  business  streets,  its  banks,  railroads,  theatres, 
street-car  system,  and  daily  newspapers ;  yet,  in  going 
from  one  to  the  other  on  either  of  the  three  lines  of 
railroads  connecting  them,  the  traveler  is  not  out  of  sight 
of  the  suburbs  of  the  place  he  is  leaving  before  the  spires 
of  its  twin-city  rise  before  him. 

St.  Paul  is  the  older  place,  having  been  a  frontier  trad- 
ing post  in  the  time  when  the  whole  area  of  the  present 
State  of  Minnesota  was  an  Indian  hunting  ground.  As 
a  Territorial  capital,  and  later  the  capital  of  the  State,  it 


id  Pacific 
i  on  that 
id  it  was 
line  from 
ds,  about 
or  a  joint 
ICC.  The 
1  rendered 
ident  line 
Company's 

e,  situated 
L  River,  so 
touch,  and 
lis  rivaling 
Pacific  sys- 
ile  of  each 
er.     Prob- 


11 

e 


summer 
ts.     Their 
1  business 
nteresting 
nsc  a  sub- 
rue  city  in 
sale  trade, 
,  theatres, 
in  going 
:e   lines  of 
ut  of  sight 
the  spires 

ntier  trad- 

le  present 

)und.     As 

le  State,  it 


ft 


1^ 


fi 


.^^Jl'HVlwR 


EASTERN   TERMINAL    CITIES  AND  LAKE  PORTS. 


311 


early  attained  importance,  and  as  the  most  convenient 
landing-place  for  supplies  at  the  head  of  river  navigation, 
commerce  occupied  it  as  a  distributing  point.  The 
growth  of  Minneapolis  dates  from  the  establishment  of 
manufacturing  industries  at  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony. 
Formerly  there  were  two  villages,  one  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  river,  bearing  the  name  of  the  falls;  the  other  on 
the  west  bank,  called  Minneapolis  in  185 1.  The  first  saw- 
mill was  put  in  operation  in  1848,  by  the  aid  of  a  tempo- 
rary dam  built  across  the  cast  channel  of  the  river.  The 
place  was  a  natural  seat  of  lumber  manufacture,  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  its  tributaries  carrying  the  logs  down  from 
the  pineries  of  Northern  Minnesota,  and  the  cataract  af- 
fording ample  power  for  mills.  The  remarkable  growth 
of  the  place  dates,  however,  from  a  very  recent  period. 
As  late  as  i860  there  were  only  5,821  inhabitants  in  the 
two  villages.  It  was  the  cultivation  of  wheat  in  the  North- 
west, and  the  building  of  flouring-mills  at  the  Falls  of  St. 
Anthony,  which  gave  Minneapolis  the  impetus  that 
brought  it  out  of  the  country  village  state.  In  i860  the 
first  mill  to  grind  wheat  was  set  in  motion,  and  two  more 
were  built  next  year.  The  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  of 
1 861  checked  the  growth  of  both  Minneapolis  and  St. 
Paul,  but  they  were  more  seriously  affected  by  the  Sioux 
Indian  massacre  of  1862.  In  August  of  that  year  three 
thousand  savages  fell  upon  the  unsuspecting  settlers  along 
a  frontier  line  of  two  hundred  miles,  advanced  less  than  a 
hundred  west  of  the  capital  of  the  State.  More  than 
2,000  men,  women  and  children  perished  in  a  single  week 
by  the  bullets  and  knives  of  the  brutal  Sioux,  and  blazing 
villages  and  farm  houses  spread  a  lurid  glare  along  the 
western  sky.  Many  thousands  of  terror-stricken  fugitives 
abandoned  their  homes,  and  flocked  for  protection  to  St. 
Paul  and  Minneapolis.  The  Indians  were  soon  held  in 
check,  and  in  a  few  weeks  were  totally  defeated  in  a  hard 


I 


%\ 


y^ 


wm 


I 

1 

312 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


fight,  and  driven  out  of  the  State,  but  the  news  of  the 
massacre  stopped  emigration  to  Minnesota  for  a  time,  and 
retarded  the  settlement  of  her  fertile  prairies.  Prosperity 
was  restored  in  1864  and  1865,  and  since  then  the  growth 
of  the  twin  cities  has  been  rapid.  St.  Paul  was  far  in  the 
lead  until  the  great  expansion  of  the  flouring  and  lumber 
industries  at  the  falls  brought  Minneapolis  up  abreast  with 
her  neighbor.  During  the  year  1882  Minneapolis  manu- 
factured 312,239,000  feet  of  lumber,  and  ground  16,900,000 
bushels  of  wheat  Into  flour.  Its  flouring  mills  are  impos- 
ing structures  of  stone,  and  many  of  them  are  equaled  for 
capacity  of  production  nowhere  in  the  world  save  by  a 
single  mill  at  BudaPesth,  in  Hungary. 

St.  Paul's  leading  business  is  the  wholesale  trade  in 
groceries  and  dry  goods.  Many  of  the  commercial  houses 
occupy  buildings  of  great  size,  and  carry  stocks  scarcely 
exceeded  by  those  of  the  best  known  firms  of  Chicago  and 
New  York.  Their  stately  edifices  of  trade  lining  the 
streets  in  the  business  quarter,  give  to  the  town  an  air  of 
dignity  and  solid  prosperity.  With  one  exception  the  six 
railway  lines  which  make  St.  Paul  a  terminus  run  also 
to  Minneapolis,  and  all  use  a  freight  transfer  station  mid- 
way between  the  two  cities.  St.  Paul,  however,  is  re- 
garded as  the  focus  of  railway  activity,  as  Minneapolis  is 
of  manufacturing.  It  also  does  a  large  transportation 
trade  by  river,  in  spite  of  the  great  diversion  of  traffic 
from  water  to  rail.  Two  lines  of  steamers  despatch  each 
a  boat  daily  to  St.  Louis. 

In  their  physical  aspects  the  two  citit.^  differ  widely.  St. 
Paul  is  built  on  three  plateaux,  rising  above  the  river  like 
irregular  terraces,  and  broken  by  i.lu:  depressions  of  bold 
ravines.  The  streets  are  narrow,  and  some  of  them  climb 
steep  hills.  A  long  truss  bridge  crosses  to  an  island,  and 
thence  to  the  opposite  shore  of  the  river,  aftbrding  com- 
munication with  a  suburb  on  the  further  bank.    The  State 


EASTEKX    TERMhVAL    CITIES  AXD   LAKE   PORTS. 


l^l 


Capitol  is  a  new  buildini;,  not  fortunate  in  its  exterior 
architecture,  but  handsomely  finished  within  with  the 
nature-polislied  woods  of  the  State.  It  is  well  lighted,  well 
ventilated,  and  well  arranged  for  its  purposes.  The  best 
residence  street,  Summit  Avenue,  skirting  a  bluff  for  a 
mile,  gives  striking  views  over  the  river  and  the  town,  and 
affords  abundant  evidences  of  wealth  and  taste  in  its 
dwellings  and  grounds. 

Minneapolis  stands  on  level  ground  on  both  sides  of 
the  river,  but  mainly  on  the  western  bank,  the  two  parts 
of  the  city  being  joined  by  a  suspension  biidge.  The 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  after  threatening  for  five  years  to 
break  away  and  change  to  a  lively  rapid,  were  fettered 
and  protected  by  aprons  of  stout  timber,  in  1872,  and 
made  to  look  like  a  prosaic  milldam  on  a  large  scale.  On 
both  sides  of  the  river  below  them,  and  on  the  shores  of 
an  island  above,  are  the  rows  of  ft  ^ur-mills  and  saw-mills 
which  form  the  chief  source  of  the  city's  prosperit}-.  On 
the  wide  and  level  prairie  over  which  Minneapolis  has 
spread  itself  out,  there  was  opportunity  for  a  systematic 
arrangement  of  the  streets,  which  are  broad  avenues,  with 
wide  sidewalks,  and  in  many  cases  quadruple  rows  of  trees, 
forming  cool  archways  of  shade  in  the  brief,  hot  summer 
of  this  northern  latitude.  The  tourist  who  drives  through 
these  fine  arcades  of  living  verdure,  bordered  by  hand- 
some houses  and  pretty  lawns,  is  disposed  to  concede 
the  claim  of  the  residents  that  theirs  is  the  most  beautiful 
young  city  in  America. 

At  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  the  Northern  Pacific  Road 
lias  the  advantage  of  three  competing  connections  with 
Chicago,  an  advantage  which  the  Union  Pacific  obtained 
at  Council  Bluffs  when  its  line  was  opened.  Making 
timely  provision  for  the  future,  the  Company  has  pur- 
chased extensive  grounds  for  a  Union  depot  and  car 
shops  in  the  present  northern  outskirts  of  the  city,  and 


I 


■A 


It 

1 

314 


NORTHER !V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Other  crrounds  about  midway  between  the  two  cities  for 
elevators,  stockyards,  and  general  freight  purposes.  It 
has  also  erected  in  St.  Paul  a  massive  and  handsome  fire- 
proof building  for  its  general  offices,  which  for  solidity  of 
construction  and  style  of  finish  is  hardly  equaled  by  any 
business  structure  in  the  West.  With  the  exception  of 
the  State  Capitol,  it  is  the  most  substantial  and  conspicu- 
ous building  in  St.  Paul. 

The  growth  of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  in  the  imme- 
diate future  promises  to  exceed  that  of  the  past.  A 
thousand  miles'  breadth  of  country,  whose  settlement  has 
barely  begun,  is  tributary  to  them.  They  stand  in  the 
gate-way  of  the  New  Northwest.  Their  commerce  em- 
braces in  its  far-reaching  scope  the  pineries  of  Northern 
Minnesota,  the  highly  productive  wheat  fields  of  the  val- 
leys of  the  Red  River  and  the  James,  the  Missouri  Slope, 
just  beginning  to  attract  immigration,  and  the  vast  ex- 
panse of  Montana  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Every 
farm  that  is  opened,  and  every  village  that  springs  up  in 
Dakota  or  Montana,  adds  to  their  wealth.  They  feel  in 
all  the  channels  of  their  business  activity  the  stimulus 
of  the  immense  fertile  region  lying  beyond  them  in  the 
farther  West,  where  eager  pioneers  are  turning  to  account 
the  vast  stores  of  natural  wealth.  Doubtless  their 
population  and  business  will  double  in  another  decade, 
and  it  would  be  no  rash  prediction  to  say  that,  by  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  they  will  return  to 
the  census  half  a  million  of  souls. 

The  States  of  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin  have  each  a 
considerable  extent  of  territory  fronting  upon  Lake  Su- 
perior, and  the  boundary  line  between  them  traverses 
the  only  good  harbor  at  the  head  of  the  lake,  the 
Bay  of  Superior.  This  fine  bay,  having  a  length  of 
eight  miles,  and  a  width  of  from  one  to  three  miles, 
is  sheltered  from  the  lake  by  a  narrow  tongue  of  land 


0  cities  for 
rposcs.     It 
dsomc  fire- 
solidity  of 

led  by  any 
cception  of 

1  conspicu- 

the  immc- 

2  past.  A 
lement  has 
and  in  the 
merce  em- 
f  Northern 

of  the  val- 
ouri  Slope, 
le  vast  ex- 
ins.  Everv 
rings  up  in 
hey  feel  in 
e  stimulus 
hem  in  the 

to  account 
(tless  their 
lier  decade, 
hat,  by  the 
L  return  to 

lavc  each  a 
I  Lake  Su- 
1  traverses 
lake,  the 
length  of 
hrce  miles, 
ue  of  land 


/ 


EASTERN   TERMINAL    CITIES  AND  LAKE  PORTS. 


315 


kK. 


Vof:  fur**!  - 


called    Minnesota    Point,    nowhere   more   than    a   pistol 
shot  across,  and  in  places  so  narrow  that  the  spray  of  the 
lake  waves  in  times  of  storm  almost  dashes  over  it.     Into 
the  upper  part  of  the  bay  jut  two  other  points,  Rice's  and 
Conner's,  whose  broad  flat  surfaces  are  well  adapted  for 
commercial   and   manufacturing  purposes,   and   between 
these  points  the  river  St.  Louis  flows  into  the  bay.     It 
was  only  natural  that  each  of  the  two  States  should  de- 
sire to  possess  a  commercial  city  at  the  head  of  the  great 
lake,  connected  by  railroad  lines  with  the  interior.     For 
the  development  of  such  a  city,  Wisconsin  had  an  evident 
natural  advantage  in  an  admirable  site  for  the  purpose, 
or    •'  broad    plateau    facing    the    entrance   to    the  bay; 
wh.  v'-.as  Minnesota  had  only  the  narrow  sandy  spit  bear- 
iii;;  hor  name,  and  a  steep  hillside  at  its  junction  with  the 
mainland,  and  vessels  could  only  land  in  her  territory  by 
passing  the  Wisconsin  landing  and  coming  up  the  bay  to 
Rice's  Point.     Upon  the  Wisconsin   plateau,  facing  the 
lower  bay,  stood  the  town  of  Superior,  laid  out  as  long 
ago  as   iS6o,  and  platted  on  a  scale  large  enough  for  a 
city  of  100,000  inhabitants,  but   containing  at   the  time 
operations  began  on  the   Northern   Pacific  Road  only  a 
scant  800.     Much  of  the   town-site  was  owned  by  non- 
residents.    .Among  the   original  owners  were  a  group  of 
Democratic    .stntr>men    of  great    prominence    in    public 
affairs   bcT-re   the  War — Stephen   A.   Douglas,  Jesse  D. 
Bright,    o;'!  C    T^recken  ridge,  Beriah  Magoffin,  and  also 
the  eminent  ^'  ashington  banker,  W.  W.  Corcoran.     The 
place  ')-.ad  hvT  Co   .mcrce  to  speak  of,  and  no  country  trade, 
thcr'j  being  no  farming  district  back  of  it,  and  it  lived 
along  in  a  sleepy  way,  on  the  hope  of  future  greatness,  to 
come  from  railway  connection  with  the  interior. 

At  the  head  of  Minnesota  Point  a  petty  hamlet  had 
come  into  "vistence,  called  Duluth,  in  honor  of  an  early 
French      plorer  and  trader.     It  was  occupied  by  a  few 


I 


/ 


3PM 


316 


iWORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


frontiersmen,  who  tliought  a  town  would  eventually  grov; 
up  at  the  head  of  the  lake  on  Minnesota  Territory,  and 
who  had  early  taken  measures  to  secure  claims  to  the 
land.  The  charter  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company 
made  it  optional  with  the  Company  whether  it  should 
make  its  lake  terminus  in  Minnesota  or  Wisconsin,  but 
before  it  could  build  in  either  State  the  consent  of  the 
Legislature  was  required.  The  Legislature  of  IMinnesota 
carefully  provided  in  the  act  giving  such  consent,  that 
in  case  the  Company  should  make  its  eastern  terminus 
east  of  the  easte.' r.  boundary  of  Minnesota,  it  should  con- 
struct a  line  of  ;  -^  '"■om  its  main  line  to  the  navigable 
waters  of  Lake  :3l.,  jr  within  that  State.  Wisconsin, 
less  jealous  of  her  inti^  jsts,  only  required  that  the  North- 
ern Pacific  should  not,  prior  to  the  building  of  its  line, 
allow  any  Minnesota  company  to  enjoy  its  rights  and 
privileges  within  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  and,  further, 
that  in  case  the  Northern  Pacific  sliould  not  make  a  lake 
terminus  within  the  territory  of  Wisconsin,  it  should  give 
privileges  of  connection  and  traffic  to  any  other  company 
building  from  its  main  line  to  a  Wisconsin  port.  The 
first  railroad  company  to  build  to  the  head  of  the  lake 
was  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi,  controlled  by  Jay 
Cooke  and  other  Philadelphia  capitalists,  Avho  furnished 
the  first  money  to  construct  the  Northern  Pacific.  This 
company  necessarily  made  Duluth  its  terminus,  being  a 
Minnesota  corporation.  The  interest  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  (by  purchasing  for  $500,000  an  undivided  half 
interest  in  the  road  from  the  junction  to  Duluth — twenty- 
three  miles)  made  Duluth  its  lake  terminus  for  the  time. 
But  Duluth  had  no  harbor  save  the  shallow  upper  end  of 
the  Bay  of  Superior.  Mr.  Cooke's  plan  was  to  build  a 
spacious  artificial  harbor  straight  out  into  the  lake,  like 
the  harbor  of  Cherbourg,  in  France — an  enterprise  which 
would  have  involved  the  expenditure  of  many  m.ilHons  of 


EASTERN   TERMIXAL    CITIES  AXD  LAKE  PORTS. 


317 


dollars.  An  attempt  was  made  to  create  a  temporary 
harbor  by  a  construction  of  jiilcs  and  timber,  but  a  north- 
west storm  swept  it  away.  Then  the  idea  of  a  canal 
across  the  narrow  sand  spit  of  Minnesota  Point  occurred 
to  the  citizens,  and  they  set  to  work  to  dig  it.  From  this 
canal  arose  an  acrimonious  strife  with  the  town  of  Su- 
perior, in  which  the  State  of  Wisconsin  and  the  United 
States  Government  became  involved.  The  citizens  of 
Superior  alleged  that  the  waters  of  the  St.  Louis  River 
would  leave  thcii  natural  channel  and  flow  out  throuiih 
the  canal,  and  they  made  such  representations  to  the 
Government  that  proceedings  were  begun  for  a  prelimi- 
nary injunction  to  prevent  the  digging  of  the  canal.  The 
lawyers  had  to  go  to  Topck;.,  Kansas,  to  bring  the  case 
-before  the  United  States  Circuit  Court.  Justice  Miller, 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  presided,  granted  the  injunc- 
tion, but  the  papers  were  delayed  in  transmission  so  long 
that  the  Duluth  people  by  working  night  and  day  got  the 
canal  cut  through  before  the  injunction  was  served.  The 
result  apprehended  by  Superior  followed  :  a  strong  cur- 
rent set  out  through  the  new  channel,  and  the  old 
entrance  to  the  bay  shoaled  three  feet  in  the  next  gale. 

Justice  Miller  had  suggested  in  his  opinion  that  a  dike 
might  be  constructed  which  would  prevent  the  river  from 
leaving  its  old  course,  and  so  obviate  the  objections  of 
Superior ;  and,  acting  on  this  suggestion,  Duluth  obtained 
permission  from  the  Chief  of  Engineers  at  Washington  Lo 
build  a  dike  from  Rice's  Point  to  Minnesota  Point,  inclos- 
ing a  small  basin  at  the  head  of  the  bay  for  a  harbor, 
communicating  with  the  lake  by  the  new  canal.  The 
dike  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $i  lo.ooG,  but  it  was  not  made 
water  tight.  It  did  ''ot  stop  the  river  from  sending  much 
of  its  water  out  by  the  canal,  and  it  made  a  barrier  to 
navigation  which  cut  off  the  Superior  people  from  sailing 
up  the  bay  to  use  the  new  railroad  at  Duluth.     An  at- 


I 


) 


WSSSSfSfS. 


■H 


318 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


tempt  was  made  one  niijlit,  by  a  party  from  Superior,  to 
blow  up  the  dike  with  gunpowder,  which  was  so  far  suc- 
cessful as  to  open  a  passage  through  which  small  boats 
could  go.  Meantime  Duluth  deepened  her  canal  and  ob- 
t'  'ned  recognition  for  it  from  Congress  in  the  form  of  an 
appropriation  to  build  piers  and  a  lighthouse,  and  to 
dredge  out  the  snug  little  harbor  into  which  it  opened. 
After  a  time  the  Government  ordered  the  dike  removed 
as  an  obstruction  to  commerce,  and  it  was  partially  de- 
molished. Before  this  was  done,  however,  a  suit  was 
brought  against  the  City  of  Duluth  and  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  which  had  aided  in  the  canal 
and  dike  work,  for  compensation  for  the  damage  done  to 
the  harbor  of  Superior.  This  suit  was  withdrawn  by 
Gov.  Washbur.ic,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  Company 
agreeing  to  build  a  branch  across  Rice's  Point  and  Con- 
ner's Point  to  Superi<^i-,  and  in  conducting  the  business 
of  its  road,  to  place  Supcr'or  and  Duluth  on  an  equal 
footing.  To  facilitate  this  compromise  a  bill  was  passed 
by  Congress  giving  the  right  to  bridge  the  St.  Louis 
River  between  the  two  points. 

Thus  Duluth  got  her  harbor  and  her  railroad,  while 
Superior  got  nothing  but  a  promise,  and  was  obliged  to 
sit  idly  on  her  plateau  and  see  a  busy  town  grow  up  on 
the  steep  Minnesota  hillsides  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
baj^ ;  the  prize  for  which  she  had  waited  a  quarter  of  a 
century  having  slipped  through  her  fingers.  Duluth 
grew  apace;  wharves  and  elevators  were  built  on  the 
sandy  point,  the  forest  was  cleared  from  the  slooes  of  the 
hills  and  an  active  commercial  town  leaped  into  exist- 
ence. Everything  went  on  prosperously  until  the  panic 
of  1873  stopped  construction  on  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad.  Then  the  town  collapsed  and  half  its  population 
abandoned  it.  Stagnation  and  discouragement  reigned 
for  five  or  six  years,  when  better  times  brought  a  fresh 


EASTERiV   TERMINAL   CITIES  AND  LAKE  FORTS. 


319 


crrowtli.  Saw  mills  and  a  charcoal  iron  furnace  were  cs- 
tablished.  With  the  settlement  of  western  Minnesota  and 
Dakota,  more  and  more  wheat  came  to  Duluth  for  lake 
shipment,  and  more  and  more  lumber  was  demanded  by 
the  interior.  In  the  years  1881  and  1882  the  growth  of 
the  town  was  remarkable.  The  population  increased 
from  5,000  in  1880,  to  12,000  in  the  spring  of  1883.  Dur- 
ing the  year  1882,  508  new  buildings  were  erected,  costing 
§1,438,315.  The  grain  receipts,  which  in  1881  were 
2,848,402  bushels,  increased  in  1882  to  4,198,833  bushels. 
Five  new  saw  mills  were  established  in  1882,  and  the  total 
lumber  product  was  83,118,793  feet,  besides  21,363,000 
shingles  and  10,528,000  lath.  A  railroad  is  now  building 
to  the  Iron  Range,  an  immense  ledge  of  hematite  ore 
about  one  hundred  miles  north  of  Duluth,  which  it  is  be- 
lieved will  make  the  town  an  important  iron  manufactur- 
ing point,  bringing  its  coal  from  the  Lake  Erie  ports  and 
shipping  its  product  westward  by  rail.  The  lake  com- 
merce of  Duluth  employs  six  lines  of  steamers  and  numer- 
ous sailing  vessels.  In  1882  there  were  569  arrivals  of 
steamers  and  277  of  sail  craft — an  increase  of  184  arrivals 
over  1 88 1. 

Superior  has  experienced  considerable  growth  of  late, 
but  cannot  yet  make  comparison  with  its  prosperous 
rival.  Its  present  population,  in  the  summer  of  1883,  is 
about  2,000.  The  Government  has  deepened  the  harbor 
entrance,  and  the  town  is  beginning  to  obtain  some  bene- 
fits from  lake  commerce  attracted  thither  by  two  lines  of 
railroad — the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Omaha, 
leading  to  St.  Paul  and  Chicago,  and  the  Northern 
Pacific.  The  Wisconsin  division  of  the  latter  road  was 
opened  to  Superior  in  December,  1881,  under  an  agree- 
ment with  leading  citizens  conveying  to  the  Company  an 
interest  in  the  town  site  and  the  use  of  the  water  front ; 
but  the  harbor  improvements  were  not  made  in  time  for 


*u 


I 


-1 


320 


A'OKTJIEKX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


freight    to    be    sent    over    the    line   until    the   season   oi 
1883. 

In  concluding  this  account  of  the  two  ports  at  the 
head  of  Lake  Superior  reached  by  the  Northern  Pacific 
'  system,  it  may  properly  be  said  that  the  probabilities  of 
the  future  indicate  the  development  of  a  large  city,  which 
will  have  need  of  all  the  building  sites,  water  fronts  and 
harbor  advantages  of  both  places,  and  which  will  unite 
the  two  rival  towns  in  one  true  metropolis.  The  distance 
from  the  north  end  of  Duluth  to  the  south  end  of  Superior, 
be  it  remarked,  is  not  half  that  from  the  north  to  the 
south  end  of  Chicago,  and  with  the  bridging  of  the  St. 
Louis  River  local  travel  will  easily  pass  from  one  place  to 
the  other. 

The  town  of  Ashland,  on  Chegwamigon  Bay,  sixty  miles 
east  of  Superior,  will  soon  be  reached  by  the  Wisconsin 
division  of  the  Northern  Pacific  road.  It  has  a  good 
harbor  and  is  the  lake  terminus  of  the  Wisconsin  Central 
Railroad.  As  a  third  lake  port  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
system,  it  will  soon  have  increased  importance.  At  pres- 
ent its  population  is  about  2,000. 


season   oi 

orts  at  the 
lern  Pacific 
^abilities  of 
city,  whicli 

fronts  and 
.  will  unite 
he  distance 
of  Superior, 
3rth  to  the 

of  the  St. 
me  place  to 


sixty  miles 
:  Wisconsin 
las  a  good 
isin  Central 
lern  Pacific 
:.     At  pres- 


^ 


I 


-r 


f 

v}'. 


u 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 


ft 


NORTHERN   MINNESOTA. 

Extensive  Al-eas  of  Forest  I-and — Towns  North  of  St.  Paul — The  Country 
Hetween  Eake  Superior  and  lirainertl — A  Wide  Stretch  of  Wilderness — 
Great  Value  of  the  Minnesota  Timber  IJelt — The  Lake  and  Park  Region 
— Innumerable  Lakes  and  lieautiful  Groves — Detroit — Fergus  Falls  and 
its  Water-power — The  Great  Valley  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North — 
The  Land  of  No.  i  Hard  Wheat — Towns  iu  the  Valley — Breckenridge 
and  Wahpeton — Fargo  and  Moorhead — The  Natural  Grain  Belt  of  the 
Continent — Settlement  of  Northern  Minnesota. 


4 


: 


A  L.\RGE  part  of  the  surface  of  Northern  Minnesota  is 


still, 


ant 


mus 


st  always  be,  covered  with  forests,  the  soil 


not  being  adapted  for  agriculture,  even  if  settlers  were 
willing  to  undergo  the  toil  of  clearing  off  the  trees  and 
undergrowth.  In  the  pine  belts  the  soil  is  light  and: 
sandy,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  hard-wood  districts  the 
ground  is  so  flat  in  large  areas  of  surface  that  there  is 
no  sufficient  drainage,  and  the  water  collects  in  swamps 
and  countless  ponds,  making  the  earth  cold  ar"<d  soggy. 
There  are,  however,  extensive  forest  districts  lightly  tim- 
bered with  oak,  birch  and  maple,  where  clearings  are 
made  with  profit  after  the  heavier  timber  has  been  cut 
off  for  firewood  and  railway  ties.  American  emigrants 
seldom  go  to  these  districts,  preferring  the  open  prairie, 
a  little  further  west ;  but  those  forest-loving  people,  the 
Germans  and  Scandinavians,  have  planted  thrifty  col- 
onies there.  Along  the  St.  Paul  Division  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad,  which  follows  the  Mississippi  Valley 
closely,  many  broad  prairie  openings  occur,  which  have 
been  tolerably  well  settled  for  the  past  twenty  years. 
The  towns  of  Itaska,  Anoka,  Elk  River,  Little  Falls,  St. 
Cloud  and  Saux  Rapids  are  chiefly  engaged  in  sawing 

31 


322 


N'ORTHER.y  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


the  logs  which  arc  floated  down  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  from  the  pineries,  and  in  grinding  grain  for 
the  neighboring  farmers.  They  are  prosperous  places  in 
the  main,  but  most  of  them  seem  nearly  to  liave  reached 
their  limit  of  growth.  East  of  the  valley  lie  the  most  ex- 
tensive pine  forests  of  the  State  ;  west  of  it  there  is  a 
thickly  timbered  hard-wood  belt,  screening  as  with  a  cur- 
tain of  green  a  beautiful  agricultural  region  beyond. 

The  main  line  of  the  railroad,  running  nearly  due  west 
from  the  head  of  Lake  Superior,  traverses  a  monoto- 
nous region  all  the  way  to  Brainerd,  a  distance  of  114 
miles.  The  whole  face  of  the  country  is  covered  with 
the  original  forest  growth  of  dwarfish  oaks,  maples  and 
birch,  with  here  and  there  patches  of  tamarack,  spruce 
or  pine.  Although  this  is  the  water-shed  between  the 
lakes  and  thj  Mississippi,  the  land  is  nearly  level,  and 
the  little  chocolate -colored  streams  wander  aimlessly 
about,  as  if  uncertain  whether  to  make  for  the  near  reser- 
voir of  Lake  Superior  or  to  start  on  the  long  journey 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  This  great  forest  tract  extends 
northward  all  the  way  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  is 
uninhabited  save  for  the  lumbermen's  camps,  where  the 
little  rivulets  are  deep  enough  to  carry  the  logs  to  dis- 
tant mills.  Between  Duluth  and  Superior  at  the  head 
of  the  lake,  and  Brainerd  on  the  Mississippi,  there  are  no 
farms  and  no  towns  save  the  sawmill  hamlets  of  Thom- 
son and  Aiken  and  the  little  railroad  village  of  Northern 
Pacific  junction.  There  is  no  reason  to  regret,  however, 
that  nature  has  made  so  much  of  Northern  Minnesota 
an  irredeemable  wilderness.  These  dreary  woodland 
stretches  are  of  the  greatest  importance.  Desolate  them- 
selves, they  have  virtually  peopled  the  fertile  prairies 
that  sweep  away  westward  in  billowy  undulations  all  the 
way  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  for  they  are  the  store- 
houses of  fuel  and  lumber  for  the  treeless  plains — build- 


NOH  TIIERX  MINNL  SO  TA . 


3-3 


111!^  the  farmer's  Iiouse  and  feeding  his  fire.  But  for  tiicir 
nearness  to  the  Red  River  Valley  and  the  Dakota 
prairies  the  settlement  of  these  regions  would  have  been 
indefinitely  retarded.  Cities,  villages  and  farm-houses, 
railway  ties,  telegraph  poles,  and  towering  grain-eleva- 
tors have  all  been  cut  out  of  these  Minnesota  woods. 

cmembering  this,  the  traveler  checks  the  expression, 
"What  a  wretched  country !"  which  rises  to  his  lips  as 
he  rides  hour  after  hour  through  swamps  and  pine  bar- 
rens, past  sombre  lakes  and  never-ending  thickets,  where 
the  silence  is  only  broken,  when  the  noisy  train  stands 
still,  by  the  croaking  of  frogs  or  the  resonant  ring  of  the 
woodchopper's  axe. 

Brainerd  is  a  busv  town  of  railroad  mechanics  and 
train  men,  built  in  the  pine  woods  on  the  high  bank  of 
the  Mississippi ;  and  the  people,  with  a  good  taste,  rare  in 
new  western  communities,  have  refrained  from  slaughtt  r- 
ing  the  stately  trees,  and    planted   their  pretty  cottages 

•■>i-)ng  them,  finding  shelter  from  the  keen  northern  blasts 
winter,  and  from  the  summer  sun  under  the  evergreen 
.anopies.  The  town  boasts  of  7,000  inhabitants,  and  is 
wholly  the  creation  of  the  railroad.  Further  west  the 
character  of  the  country  soon  changes  into  a  level  or 
slightly  rolling  region  of  alternate  prairie  and  woodland 
strips.  Good  farms  and  busy  little  towns  are  passed — • 
each  town  with  its  tall  wheat  elevator,  and  its  rows  of 
little  pine  shops  and  dwellings,  and  all  looking  very 
much  alike.  In  the  first  stage  of  the  growth  of  villages 
along  a  new  line  of  railroad,  the  business  buildings  are 
always  placed  as  near  the  station  as  possible,  on  a  street 
facing  the  track.  If  the  place  flourishes,  a  second  busi- 
ness street  is  built  crossing  the  track  at  right  angles, 
and  leading  off  into  the  country  ;  but  unless  a  large  town 
grows  up,  the  centre  of  trade  is  never  out  of  sight  of  the 
arriving  train.     The  locomotive  is  the  great  civilizer  of 


rr 


324 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


new  regions,  and  the  settlers,  to  whom  the  railroad  means 
comfort  and  prosperity,  seem  to  find  music  in  its  bell  and 
whistle.  Among  the  well-established  and  growing  towns 
in  the  farming  country  west  of  Brainerd  are  Verndalc  and 
Wadena,  the  latter  a  county  seat  and  the  terminus  of  the 
important  branch  railroad  running  to  Fergus  Falls,  and 
thence  across  the  Red  River  Valley  far  into  Dakota. 
Further  west  is  Perham,  named  in  honor  of  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad ;  Detroit,  Lake 
Park,  and  Hawley,  which  commemorates  an  excursion  of 
Gen.  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut,  to  the  Red  River 
country  in  1872,  made  as  a  journalist,  in  company  with  a 
party  of  famous  men  of  that  profession — among  them 
Bayard  Taylor  and  Charles  A.  Dana.  At  Detroit  we  are 
in  the  heart  of  a  very  peculiar  and  very  attractive  belt  of 
country,  appropriately  called  the  Lake  and  Park  Region, 
which  has  a  length  of  about  200  miles,  and  an  average 
width  of  5c,  and  borders  on  the  east  upon  the  flat  and 
treeless  plain  of  the  Red  River  Valley.  Lake  Region  it 
is,  indeed,  for  there  are  so  many  lakes,  big  and  little,  that 
the  inhabitants  appear  to  have  given  up  the  task  of  find- 
ing names  for  them  all.  Some  stretch  out  to  the  horizon 
in  broad  sheets  of  blue  ;  many  are  bright  little  pools  of  a 
mile  or  two  in  length.  Usually  the  shores  slope  gently 
up  from  pebbly  beaches,  and  present  graceful  curves  of 
bays  and  capes,  with  fields  and  meadows  alternating  with 
oak  and  maple  groves.  On  a  large  map  nearly  one-third 
of  the  country  appears  to  be  covered  with  water,  and  the 
map  presents  a  curious  mottled  appearance,  like  the  pecu- 
liar paper  bookbinders  use.  Between  the  lakes  the  land 
rises  and  sinks  in  knolls,  hills  and  valleys,  with  pleas- 
ing curvatures  of  surface,  broad  stretches  of  wheat  and 
pasture  farms  and  many  wooded  tracts,  where  the  trees 
stand  in  groups,  with  lawn-like  openings  between,  and 
suggest  the  artificial  arrangement  of  the  parks  on  the 


NOR  THERN  MINNESO  TA . 


325 


estates  of  English  noblemen.  A  prettier  rural  country, 
so  far  al  nature  has  made  it,  one  need  not  wish  to  see. 
In  riding  across  it,  every  hill-top  discloses  a  view  of  more 
lovely  lakes,  each  with  some  claim  to  Individuality  of 
slope  or  landscape  setting,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  rest. 

Not  only  is  the  Lake  and  Park  Region  a  very  pretty 
country;  it  is  also  a  very  fertile  country.  The  open 
lands  are  excellent  for  general  farming — not  quite  as  pro- 
ductive of  wheat  as  the  Red  River  Valley  lands  further 
west,  hut,  from  their  excellent  drainage,  not  liable  to  the 
drawback  of  an  occasional  wet  season,  which  once  in  four 
or  five  years  reduces  the  yield  of  the  Valley  farms.  Then 
the  farmers  here  have  the  great  advantage  of  an  abun- 
dance of  hard  wood  for  fuel  and  fencing  on  their  own 
estates,  or  close  at  hand,  and  the  pleasures  of  fishing  and 
shooting  on  the  lakes ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  saving  from 
being  able  to  supply  their  tables  abundantly  with  black 
bass,  pickerel,  white  fish,  and  muscalonge,  and  with  wild 
duck.  A  good  farm  fronting  on  one  of  these  clear,  blue 
lakes,  gives  the  most  agreeable  conditions  of  rural  life  to 
be  found  in  the  Northwest — mellow,  fertile  fields  for 
crops,  excellent  pastures  and  meadows,  broad  woodland 
tracts  for  timber  and  the  home  fires,  fishing,  hunting,  and 
boating  for  recreation,  and  railroads  and  towns  near  at 
hand.  Land  is  naturally  held  at  higher  prices  than  out 
on  the  prairies,  and  there  is  none  left  for  the  homestead 
settler  or  for  purchase  at  the  low  prices  of  railroad  com- 
nics.  Still,  good  land  can  be  bought  at  $10  or  $15  an 
acre,  and  improved  farms  for  §20  or  $25. 

Detroit,  whose  lovely  lake  is  fast  becoming  a  summer  re- 
sort, is  one  of  the  principal  towns  of  this  region  ;  another, 
and  the  largest  in  the  region,  is  Fergus  Falls,  fast  develop- 
ing into  a  considerable  manufacturing  town.  Here  the  Ot- 
tcrtail  River  comes  leaping  down  from  a  group  of  lakes  to 
the  plain  of  the  Red  River,  making  a  succession  of  rapids 


■M 


..MM.,    iiM^rMJiMiiiiii  iMiWiM^iiftMi  itliU  if      liiilihttm  MiiriMlMII 


■9W 


326 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC   RAILROAD. 


and  cascades,  which  form  a  remarkably  good  water  power, 
scarcely  varying  in  volume  the  year  round,  neither  swell- 
ing in  dangerous  freshets,  nor  dwindling  in  summer 
droughts.  This  water-power  has  already  (in  1883)  pro- 
duced an  active  town  of  about  6,000  inhabitants  in  five 
years'  time,  and  is  not  yet  utilized  to  the  extent  of  one- 
fourth  of  its  capacity.  Fergus  Falls  is  built  on  more  i..lls 
than  ancient  Rome,  and,  oddly  enough,  on  the  top  of  one 
of  them,  high  above  the  neighboring  business  street,  is  a 
pretty  little  lake,  two  or  three  miles  in  circumferei  In- 

stead of  draining  it  off  with  the  view  to  sell  its  bed  fo.  town 
lots,  as  the  prevalent  utilitarian  spirit  of  the  West  must 
often  have  suggested,  the  people  have  spared  the  groves 
on  its  banks,  and  laid  out  a  drive  and  promenade  skirting 
the  shore,  on  which  they  are  building  handsome  residences. 
Other  growing  towns  in  this  region  arc  Pelican  Rapids 
and  Sauk  Centre.  The  region  ends  on  the  north  at  the 
pine  country  around  Red  Lake,  and  on  the  east  at  the 
low  forest  tract  skirting  the  Mississippi  Valley,  while  on 
the  west  it  is  bordered  by  the  treeless  plains,  which  are 
relieved  by  no  forests  nearer  than  the  advanced  spurs  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains — the  Bull,  the  Big  Horn,  and  the 
Judith  ranges.  It  is  traversed  by  the  main  line  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  and  by  two  of  its  branches — 
the  Little  Falls  and  Dakota  and  the  Northern  Pacific, 
Fergus  and  Black  Hills  Railroads,  and  also  by  one  of  the 
main  lines  and  one  of  the  branches  of  the  St.  Paul,  Min- 
neapolis and  Manitoba  Railroad. 

Upon  their  western  front  the  woodlands  leave  off  quite 
abruptly,  as  if  unwilling  to  descend  to  the  low  plain,  and 
the  surface  becomes  less  and  less  undulating  until,  a  few- 
miles  beyond  the  timber  boundary,  the  level  prairie 
stretches  away  to  the  horizon  line.  This  is  the  great 
Valley  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  first  discovered 
two  centuries  ago   by  French  voyageurs   pushing  their 


NORTHERN  MJNNESOTA. 


327 


ater  power, 
ither  swell- 
in  summer 
I  1883)  pro- 
ants  in  five 
ent  of  one- 
1  more  i.lls 
i  top  of  one 
3  street,  is  a 
'erer  In- 
)cd  fo.  town 

West  must 
I  the  groves 
ade  skirting 
e  residences, 
ican  Rapid;: 
north  at  the 

east  at  the 
^y,  while  on 

,  which  are 

cd  spurs  of 
n,  and  the 
line  of  the 
branches — 

ern  Pacific, 
one  of  the 
Paul,  Min- 

ve  offquite 
plain,  and 

until,  a  few 

:vel  prairie 
the  great 
discovered 

ihing  their 


pirogues  up  the  tortuous  course  of  the  muddy  stream 
from  their  fur-trading  station  near  Lake  Winnipeg.  The 
land  is  almost  a  dead  level,  and  the  grassy  surface  is 
featureless  save  where  there  is  a  fringe  of  alder  and  Cot- 
tonwood along  a  stream,  and  where  farm-houses,  straw- 
ricks,  railway  stations  and  towns  relieve  its  endless  mo- 
notony of  aspect.  The  land,  as  all  the  world  now  knows, 
is  of  great  and  inexhaustible  fertility,  and  particularly 
valuable  for  the  production  of  spring  wheat.  Settlement 
on  the  American  side  of  the  international  boundary  only 
dates  from  the  opening  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
across  the  valley  in  1871  and  1872;  yet  the  crop  of  "  No. 
I  hard  wheat "  is  already  one  of  the  important  elements 
in  the  grain  trade  of  the  world,  though  scarcely  one  acre 
in  five  of  the  valley  has  been  plowed.  All  the  rest  is  vir- 
gin sod  awaiting  immigration  and  industry. 

The  Red  River  cuts  the  valley  in  two  from  south  to 
north  nearly  midway  of  its  width,  and  divides  Minne- 
sota from  Dakota.  A  notable  fact  showing  a  tendency 
of  growth  akin  to  that  which  —  other  things  being 
equal — causes  cities  to  be  built  on  the  western  shore  of 
rivers  rather  than  their  eastern  banks,  is  the  more  rapid 
settlement  of  the  Dakota  side  of  the  valley.  Although 
the  land  is  as  good  and  as  ample  in  area  on  the  Minne- 
sota side,  the  greater  part  of  the  incoming  tide  of  popu- 
lation pushes  across  to  Dakota.  On  that  side  are  the 
chief  towns  of  the  valley — Wahpeton,  Fargo  and  Grand 
Forks.  Facing  Wahpeton,  across  the  narrow  stream,  is 
Breckenridge,  the  oldest  town,  save  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company's  post  of  Georgetown,  in  the  entire  valley,  yet 
scarce  a  third  as  large  as  its  Dakota  neighbor.  Facing 
Fargo  in  a  like  situation  is  the  town  of  Moorhead,  which 
can  count  perhaps  half  as  many  inhabitants  as  its  more 
successful  rival,  but  makes  creditable  efforts  to  keep 
from  lapsing  into  the  condition  of  a  suburb,  and  has 


328 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


h   ' 


more  brick  buildings  than  Fargo,  and  the  largest  and 
best-appointed  hotel  northwest  of  Chicago.  Moorhead 
has  4,000  inhabitants;  Breckcnridge,  about  1,000;  Morris, 
further  up  the  valley,  also  about  1,000.  Below  Moor- 
head there  are  a  few  small  towns  on  the  Minnesota  side, 
which  need  not  be  noticed  here.  The  Red  River  cuts  a 
deep  channel  through  the  black  loam  of  the  prairie,  and 
is  navigable  as  far  up  as  Wahpeton  for  little  steamboats 
which  pull  after  them  grain-laden  barges,  and  thus  sup- 
plement the  well-developed  railway  system  of  the  valley. 
It  seems  certain  that  this  valley  and  the  rolling  prairie 
country  beyond  it  is  destined  to  be  the  ultimate  and  per- 
manent granary  of  the  American  continent.  The  wheat 
belt  has  been  moving  west  for  a  century,  commencing  in 
the  valleys  of  the  Connecticut  and  the  Mohawk  and  con- 
stantly abandoning  its  old  fields  to  other  crops,  and  fol- 
lowing the  advance  of  civilization  across  Western  New 
York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Wisconsin 
and  Minnesota.  It  can  go  no  further,  for  it  has  already 
reached  the  high  central  plateau  of  the  continent,  where 
there  is  not  moisture  enough  for  the  growth  of  the 
cereals.  Now  it  must  halt  and  remain.  In  Dakota  and 
Western  Minnesota,  and  in  the  Canadian  Province  of 
Manitoba  further  north,  wheat  will  always  be  the  staple 
crop,  as  it  has  been  for  centuries  in  the  valley  of  the 
Lower  Danube  and  on  the  great  plains  of  Southern  Rus- 
sia. The  land  in  this  new  granary  of  tiie  Northwest  is 
perfectly  adapted  to  farming  on  a  large  scale  by  ma- 
chinery, and  to  the  most  economical  production  and  hand- 
ling of  the  crop. 

A  word  of  historical  reference  should  perhaps  be  added 
to  this  brief  sketch  of  Northern  Minnesota.  Some  scanty 
settlements  had  reached  this  section  when  the  Indian 
outbreak  of  1862  occurred.  The  few  pioneers  perished 
at   the    hands    of  the    savages,   or,    if  they    fortunately 


.rgest  and 
Moorhcad 
o;  Morris, 
o\v  Moor- 
^sota  side, 
vcr  cuts  a 
rairie,  and 
itcamboats 
thus  sup- 
the  valley. 
ing  prairie 
:c  and  per- 
riie  wheat 
nencing  in 
'k  and  con- 
is,  and  fol- 
;stcrn  Now 
Wisconsin 
as  already 
cnt,  where 
th    of  the 
akota  ana 
rovincc  of 
the  staple 
ley  of  the 
thcrn  Rus- 
Drthwest   is 
lie  by  ma- 
and  hand- 

is  be  added 
ome  scanty 
the  Indian 
s  perished 
fortunately 


i'lllais  of  Hercules  and  Rooster  Rock   on  the  Columbia  River 


■i^— ff-sa 


NOR  THERN  MINNE  EOT  A, 


329 


escaped,  fled  to  the  towns  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  for 
refuge.  After  the  Indians  were  subdued  the  Govern- 
ment removed  all  the  bands  concerned  in  the  massacre 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  State,  and  the  refugees  returned 
to  rebuild  their  homes.  Settlement  progressed  very 
slowly  until  railways  began  to  advance  from  St.  Paul  and 
Duluth  toward  the  Red  River  in  1870  and  1871.  Soon 
after,  the  financial  panic  of  1873  checked  railway  op- 
erations for  several  years,  and  greatly  diminished  the 
movement  of  Western  emigration.  A  little  later  the 
grasshopper  plague  fell  upon  the  struggling  pioneers  on 
the  Minnesota  border,  sweeping  the  ground  bare  of  all 
growing  crops.  Clouds  of  insects  settled  upon  the  earth 
and  devoured  overy  green  thing.  Their  eggs  hatched 
out  a  fresh  swarm  next  year;  but  these,  moved  by  some 
mysterious  instinct  of  migration,  all  rose  into  the  air  just 
a  year  after  the  arrival  of  their  progenitors  and  flew  off 
to  the  eastward.  Since  then  there  has  been  no  similar 
visitation,  but  it  was  two  or  three  years  before  the  re- 
gion had  recovered  from  its  heavy  losses.  Indeed  many 
of  the  settlers  gave  up  their  lands  in  despair  and  re- 
turned to  their  old  homes  in  the  East.  Thus  the  present 
development  of  the  country  can  hardly  be  said  to  date 
back  more  than  seven  or  eight  years — a  fact  that  testi- 
fies strongly  to  the  productiveness  of  the  soil  and  other 
advantages  of  the  region. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 


NORTH  DAKOTA. 


Portion  of  Dakota  lying  North  of  the  46th  Parallel — North  Dalcota  a 
Vast,  Rich,  Alluvial  Plain — The  Red  River  Valley — The  James,  Sheyennc 
and  Mouse  Rivers — Devil's  Lake— The  Missouri  and  its  Tributaries — 
The  Coteaux — Fertile  Regions  West  of  the  Missouri — Dakota's  Railroad 
System — Chief  Towns  of  North  Dakota — Origin  of  liismarck  and  Man- 
dan — Climatic  Peculiarities — A  Dakota  Winter — Prairie  Landscaj)es— 
The  Charm  of  Vast  Spaces  and  Wide  Sweeps  of  Vision — Lignite  Coal 
J"ields — Singular  Scenery  of  the  Bad  Lands — An  Admirable  Grazing 
Country. 

Bv  common  consent,  North  Dakota  includes  that 
portion  of  the  immense  Territory  lying  north  of  the 
forty-sixth  parallel  of  latitude.  Two  years  ago  there 
was  a  belt  of  vacant  country  between  the  settlements 
along  the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  and 
those  created  by  the  opening  of  the  lines  of  the  Chicago 
and  Northwestern  and  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St. 
Paul  Railway  systems  which  traverse  the  southern 
part  of  the  Territory,  and  between  these  two  regions 
there  was  no  direct  communication  ;  travelers  being  com- 
pelled to  go  around  through  the  States  of  Minnesota 
and  Iowa  to  reach  points  in  their  own  Territory,  distant, 
perhaps,  only  one  or  two  hundred  miles.  Thus  two  dis- 
tinct communities  grew  up,  each  with  its  towns  and  its 
railway  systems,  bound  together  by  the  bond  of  a  single 
territorial  government,  but  having  no  other  interests  in 
common.  The  open  country  lying  between  the  ad- 
vance settlements  of  the  two  sections  has  filled  up  of  late, 
however,  so  that  now  the  dividing  line  is  no  longer  a  real 
one,  and  in  going  from  north  to  south  in  any  portion  of 
Dakota  east  of  the  James  River,  one  is  never  long  out  of 


NORTH  DAKOTA, 


331 


sight  of  a  homesteader's  house.  For  the  purposes  of  this 
work,  however,  the  term  North  Dakota,  as  popularly  used, 
will  be  employed  to  designate  the  region  lying  north  of 
the  forty-sixth  parallel,  which  alone  will  be  regarded  as 
coming  within  the  Northern  Pacific  belt. 

North  Dakota,  generally  speaking,  is  a  rich  alluvial 
plain,  level  on  its  eastern  side  and  upheaved  in  the 
centre  and  west  into  rolling  plateaux  and  low  ridges  and 
hills.  It  is  wholly  destitute  of  trees,  except  narrow 
fringes  of  soft  wood  timber  along  the  borders  of  streams 
and  a  considerable  body  of  oaks  and  some  other  varieties 
of  hard  wood  growing  near  the  Manitoba  line  on  a  group 
of  high  hills  called  Turtle  Mountain.  The  entire  sur- 
face, save  where  broken  by  the  plow,  is  covered  with 
a  thick  carpet  of  grass.  There  is  no  waste  land,  and  very 
little  land  not  sufficiently  fertile  to  produce  crops.  On 
the  east  the  region  is  bounded  by  the  Red  River  of  the 
North  ;  a  narrow,  tortuous  stream,  which  has  cut  for 
itself  a  deep  canal-like  channel  in  the  alluvial  soil,  and  is 
bordered  for  about  thirty  miles  on  either  side  by  a  flat 
valley,  too  low  and  level  in  places  for  drainage,  so  that 
a  good  deal  of  the  snow  and  rain-fall  accumulates  in 
shallow  ponds  and  spreads  out  over  the  fields  to  be 
evaporated  by  wind  and  sun.  Through  the  same  valley 
runs  the  Sheyenne  River,  which  first  goes  south  for  a 
hundred  miles,  as  if  making  for  the  Missouri,  and  then 
doubles  on  its  course  and  finally  discharges  its  waters 
into  the  Red.  Further  west  is  the  James  or  Dakota 
River,  running  parallel  to  the  Red,  at  a  distance  of  about 
one  hundred  miles  from  it,  but  in  just  the  opposite  di- 
rection. North  of  the  sources  of  the  Sheyenne,  but  not 
drained  by  it,  is  Lake  Minncwaukan,  or  Devil's  Lake,  a 
body  of  water  fifty  miles  long  by  from  one  to  five  wide, 
which  receives  the  drainage  of  a  large  area  of  country 
but  has   no   outlet.     Its   waters  are   impregnated   with 


if! 


mS-LlS 


332 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


alkali.  Northwest  of  this  saline  lake  the  Souris  or 
Mouse  River  makes  a  loop  of  about  a  hundred  miles  long 
down  into  Dakota  from  the  British  possessions,  and  re- 
turns to  its  native  soil  to  lose  itself  in  the  Assiniboine. 
From  northwest  to  southeast  the  Territory  is  traversed 
by  the  mighty  flood  of  the  Missouri.  It  receives  no  con- 
siderable tributaries  from  the  east,  but  from  the  west  a 
number  of  large  streams,  such  as  the  Knife,  the  Heart, 
the  Cannon  Ball,  and  the  Little  Missouri,  flow  into  it. 
Bordering  the  Missouri  on  the  east  is  a  singular  plateau 
called  on  the  early  French  maps  the  Plateau  du  Co- 
teau  du  Missouri,  a  name  which  has  been  accepted 
by  all  geographers,  but  being  much  too  long  for  popular 
use  has  been  abbreviated  in  Dakota  to  "  the  Coteaux ;" 
singular,  because  lying  so  close  to  a  great  river  which  it 
feeds  neither  with  springs  nor  with  the  surface  water  of 
its  rainfalls  and  melting  snows.  The  Coteaux  have  no 
streams,  and  are  cut  by  no  valleys  long  enough  to  serve 
as  conduits  to  carry  off  the  water.  The  surface  of  the 
plateau  is  so  irregularly  upheaved  in  low  hills  and  ridges 
that  the  water  collects  in  innumerable  ponds  which  have 
no  outlets.  Some  are  large  enough  to  be  named  as 
lakes  ;  most  of  them  are  small  and  nameless. 

East  of  the  Missouri  River,  North  Dakota  is  generally 
divided,  when  speaking  of  its  agricultural  merits,  into 
the  Red  River  Valley,  the  James  River  Valley,  the  Co- 
teaux, the  Missouri  Slope,  and  the  Devil's  Lake  country. 
It  is  all  remarkably  well  adapted  by  nature  for  the  pro- 
duction of  wheat  and  the  other  small  grains.  In  a  dry 
season  the  moist  Red  River  lands  produce  the  best 
crops  ;  in  the  wet  season  these  lands  are  surpassed  by 
those  of  the  James  River  Valley,  which  are  higher  and 
better  drained,  and  by  those  further  west  on  the  Coteaux 
and  the  "  Slope."  The  Devil's  Lake  Country  is  newly 
settled  this  season  (1883)  and  comparisons  can  hardly  be 


NORTH  DAKOTA. 


333 


>ouris    or 
niles  long 
IS,  and  rc- 
.siniboine. 
traversed 
2S  no  con- 
he  west  a 
he  Heart, 
\v  into  it. 
\x  plateau 
.u  du  Co- 
accepted 
)r  popular 
3oteaux;" 
r  which  it 
c  water  of 
X  have   no 
h  to  serve 
ace  of  the 
xnd  ridges 
hich  have 
named  as 

generally 
rits,  into 
y,  the  Co- 
country, 
r  the  pro- 
Ill  a  dry 
the  best 
Dassed  by 
igher  and 
e  Coteaux 
is  newly 
hardly  be 


made  with  it.  The  first  settlers  in  North  Dakota,  halt- 
ing in  the  Red  River  Valley  and  finding  the  soil  marvel- 
lously productive,  were  disposed  to  think  they  had  reached 
the  end  of  things  and  to  depreciate  the  regions  further 
west.  A  little  later  it  was  found  that  the  rolling  prairies 
were  just  as  valuable  for  wheat  as  the  great  bottoms,  but 
for  several  years  nobody  tried  farming  on  the  Coteaux  or 
the  Missouri  Slope.  When  the  experiment  was  made  it  was 
fully  as  successful  as  were  the  great  bonanza  farms  in  the 
Red  River  Valley.  Within  the  last  two  years,  only,  the 
fact  has  been  amply  demonstrated  that  the  whole  country 
east  of  the  Missouri  is  an  agricultural  '■egion,  adapted  for 
general  farming,  and  especially  for  raising  wheat,  oats, 
barley,  and  potatoes.  In  1882  people  began  settling 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  along  the  Heart  and  Knife 
Rivers  and  their  tributaries,  and  upon  the  high  prairies 
where  they  head.  Until  then  the  Northern  Pacific 
Ruilioad  traversed  a  desolate  country,  where  the  only 
inhabitants  were  the  section  men  keeping  its  track  in 
order.  The  land  was  fair  to  look  upon,  with  its  carpet  of 
grass  and  flowers  and  the  pyramidal  buttes  and  minia- 
ture table-mountains  on  the  horizon,  and  the  soil  was 
cvideatly  rich,  as  shown  in  the  cuts  along  the  track,  but 
there  was  so  much  vacant  country  east  of  the  Missouri 
to  fill  up  that  no  one  seemed  to  be  willing  to  try  farming 
so  far  out  towards  the  line  of  deficient  rainfall.  Finally, 
late  in  1882,  several  colonics  were  started,  and  the  emi- 
gration of  1883  has  developed  them  into  prosperous  com- 
munities with  pretty  villages  and  promising  farms.  In 
time  the  whole  country  as  far  as  the  Bad  Lands  of  the 
Little  Missouri,  on  the  extreme  western  border  of  Da- 
kota, will  be  occupied  by  settlers. 

The  railroad  system  of  North  Dakota  is  already  well 
advanced.  The  whole  Territory  is  traversed  from  cast 
to  west  by  the  Northern  Pacific  main  line,  which  throws 


m 


334 


xortnerjV  pacific  railroad. 


\ 

M 

^■\ 

i' 

'  j' 

\ 

•\\ 

■fil 

■ 

% 

off  a  branch  southwest  for  a  hundred  miles  from  F:\rgo, 
another  north  to  Devil's  Lake  from  Jamestown,  and, 
besides,  enters  the  Territory  with  one  of  its  Minne- 
sota branches,  wliich  runs  across  the  Red  River  Valley 
fifty  miles  west  of  Wahpeton.  The  north  and  south 
lines  in  that  valley  belong  to  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis 
and  Manitoba  Company,  and  there  are  three  of  them, 
one  running  to  the  Manitoba  boundary,  with  a  west- 
ern spur  to  Devil's  Lake.  Fargo,  on  the  Red  River,  is 
the  chief  town  in  North  Dakota ;  an  ambitious,  energetic 
place,  believing  strongly  that  its  destiny  is  to  be  a  large 
city.  Its  history  dates  from  1872,  but  it  had  barely  500 
inhabitants  in  1877,  so  that  its  present  importance  as  a 
busy  town  of  eight  or  ten  thout'.and  inhabitants  is  an 
achievement  of  about  six  years.  Next  in  rank  in  respect 
of  population  is  probably  Grand  Forks,  about  seventy 
miles  north  of  Fargo,  on  the  Red  River,  and  afterwards, 
in  the  order  mentioned,  Bismarck,  Jamestown,  Mandan, 
Valley  City,  and  Casselton,  all  on  the  main  line  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  and  Pembina  on  the  Manitoba  frontier. 
Other  important  towns  are  Lisbon  and  Lamoure,  on  the 
Fargo  and  Southwestern  Branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad,  and  Carrington,  on  the  Jamestown  Northern 
Branch.  Fargo  was  named  in  honor  of  Wm.  G.  Fargo, 
of  the  Wells,  Fargo  Express  Company,  who  was  long  a 
director  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Company  ;  and  Cassel- 
ton in  honor  of  General  Geo.  W.  Cass,  who  was  a  director 
for  many  years,  and,  for  a  time,  president  of  the  Com- 
pany. Bismarck  was  originally  named  Edwinton  by 
Thomas  P.  Canfield,  who  selected  the  town  site,  in  honor 
of  Edwin  F.  Johnson,  the  first  chief  engineer  of  the  Com- 
pany; but  the  name  was  changed  by  resolution  of  the 
board  of  directors,  who  desired  to  compliment  the  gi 
German  chancellor. 

Mr.  Canfield,  as  president  of  the  Lake   Superior  anu 


NORTH  DAKOTA. 


335 


trior  anu 


Pugct  Sound  Company,  a  subsidiary  corporation  formed 
to  lay  off  and  sell  town  sites,  traversed  Dakoui  from  the 
Red  River  to  the  Missouri  in  the  summer  of  1872,  follow- 
ing the  surveyed  line  of  the   railroad,  to   select  locations 
for  future  towns.     At  that  time  there  was  but  one  white 
settler  on  the  whole  route,  a  Mrs.  Bishop,  who  had  a  log 
hut  where  the  village  of  Mapleton  now  stands.     Mr.  Can- 
field  was  accompanied  by  General  Rosser,  Dr.  Thayer  and 
E.  IL  Bly.     The  site  of  Bismarck  was  selected  because  of 
the  neighboring  high  bluff  on  the  Missouri,  affording  a 
good  approach  for  the  construction  of  a  bridge,  and  be- 
cause of  its  fine  plateau,  far  above  high  water,  with  a  view 
reaching  forty  miles  down  the   river.     The    location    of 
most  of  the  large  towns  on  the  railroad  was  determined 
by  the  point  where  the  railroad  crossed  a  stream,  as  at 
Valley  City  and  Jamestown.     Mandan  was  built  on  the 
first  available  ground  for  a  town  beyond  the  low  bottoms 
which  skirt  the  Missouri  for  a  mile  in  width  west  of  the 
Bismarck   bridge.      Dickinson  was  named  for  the  town 
site  progenitor,  W.  S.  Dickinson,  of  Malone,  New  York, 
formerly  a  member  of  the  Senate  of  that  State,  whose 
efforts  to  build  up  a  town  far  west  of  the  Missouri  have 
at  last  been  rewarded  with  success.     Other  towns  and 
stations  having   some   historical   interest    through    their 
names,  are :   Tower  City,  named  for  Charlemagne  Tower, 
formerly  a  Northern  Pacific  director ;  Gladstone,  for  the 
great  English  statesman  ;    and  Fryburg,  for  General  Fry, 
of  the  army. 

The  climate  of  North  Dakota  is  cold  in  winter  and 
warm  in  summer.  There  is  scarcely  any  spring.  When 
the  cold  weather  leaves  off  the  summer  begins,  and  vege- 
.'.*on  grows  with  surprising  rapidity.  The  autumn  is  the 
most  agreeable  season.  In  summer  it  is  as  hot  as  in 
so  'lern  latitudes,  but  the  twilights  are  long  and  refresh- 
ing, and  the  nights  always  cool.     Only  in  the  midday 


336 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


hours  does  the  high  temperature  prevail.  Winter  begins 
in  November  and  lasts  until  April,  and  the  snowbanks  in 
the  hollows  usually  remain  well  into  May.  A  tempera- 
ture of  thirty  or  forty  degrees  below  zero  is  not  unusual, 
and  there  is  sometimes  an  entire  month  when  the  mean 
temperature  is  not  above  zero.  Except  when  high  winds 
blow,  the  cold  is  not  severely  felt,  however,  by  reason  of 
the  dryness  of  the  atmosphere.  Indeed  the  winter  is 
not  as  much  dreaded  or  disliked  by  the  inhabitants  as 
is  the  same  season  in  lower  latitudes,  where  frequent 
changes  of  temperature  occur,  with  a  raw,  damp  air,  cold 
rains,  and  melting  snowfalls.  Dressed  in  fur  caps  and 
mittens,  and  long  buffalo-skin  cloaks,  the  Dakota  farmers 
and  townspeople  go  about  their  outdoor  vocations  with- 
out discomfort  when  the  mercury  stands  a  long  way  below 
zero.  Only  when  ihe  blizzards  blow,  and  the  air  is  filled 
with  fine,  blinding  particles  of  dry  snow,  do  they  think  it 
needful  to  stay  indoors.  Most  winter  days  are  clear, 
bright  and  still.  The  long  season  of  good  sleighing  is 
used  by  the  farmers  for  hauling  fuel,  marketing  grain  not 
disposed  of  soon  after  the  harvest,  and  visiting  the 
towns. 

Dakota  scenery  is  not  as  monotonous  as  might  be  sup- 
posed by  one  not  accustomed  to  the  treeless  plains. 
Traveling  over  these  wide  spaces  gives  a  sensation  of 
vastness  and  sublimity  such  as  one  experiences  at  sea. 
Here,  in  the  absence  of  conspicuous  features,  the  minor 
variations  of  surface  attract  attention,  and  every  object 
on  the  horizon  looms  up  into  unnatural  proportions.  The 
one-story  "  claim-shanty  "  of  the  new  settler  looks  like  a 
tower,  the  rude  barn,  one-fourth  cabin  and  three-fourths 
straw-rick,  seems  a  gigantic  dismantled  castle,  and  the 
horseman  approaching  it  like  the  giant  of  a  fairy  talc. 
The  eye  sweeps  vast  spaces  and  rejoices  in  its  powers  of 
distant  vision.     In  the  hilly  country  alon^^  the  Missouri 


NORTH  DAKOTA. 


337 


er  begins 
vbanks  in 
tempera- 
unusual, 
the  mean 
\(A\  winds 
reason  of 
winter  is 
bitants  as 
:  frequent 
p  air,  cold 
caps  and 
ta  farmers 
ions  with- 
way  below 
lir  is  filled 
ey  think  it 
are  clear, 
^eighing  is 
crain  not 
the 


b 

siting 


It  be  sup- 
:3S  plains, 
isation  of 
es  at  sea. 
the  minor 
cry  object 
ions.  The 
»oks  like  a 
ee-fourths 
:,  and  the 

fairy  talc. 

powers  of 
Missouri 


there  are  magnificent  outlooks  over  miles  of  valley,  but- 
tressed by  gigantic  slopes  and  far-reaching  stretches  of 
billowy  green  uplands,  flecked  by  the  shadows  of  passing 
clouds.  Beyond  the  Missouri  there  is  much  variety  in 
the  landscapes.  The  buttes  which  rise  boldly  from  the 
grassy  plains,  though  only  low  hills,  have  the  form  and 
look  of  mountains,  exaggerated  in  their  apparent  height 
by  the  thin,  clear  atmosphere.  Nor  must  one  forget  the 
ponds  which  diversify  the  country  on  the  Coteaux,  and 
are  the  homes  of  all  sorts  of  water-fowl,  from  humble 
brown  mud-hens  to  big  mallard  and  teal  ducks,  and 
screaming  curlew. 

West  of  the  Missouri  River  the  country  is  more  broken 
than  upon  the  Coteaux,  the  hills  being  higher,  and  the 
drainage  running  into  a  number  of  streams  which  flow 
into  the  Missouri  through  narrow  valleys.  The  land  is 
fertile  to  the  tops  of  the  hills,  and  covered  with  a  luxu- 
riant growth  of  native  grasses.  Timber  occurs  only  along 
the  water  courses.  Veins  of  lignite  coal  abound,  crop- 
ping out  from  the  hill  sides  so  conveniently  th.at  the 
settlers  obtain  an  abundant  supply  for  domestic  putnoses 
at  no  greater  cost  than  that  of  cutting  it  out  with  ^  ks 
and  loading  their  wagons  at  the  exposed  laces  of  the  seams. 
At  Ely's  Mine,  at  the  town  of  Sims,  35  miles  west  of  the 
Missouri,  systematic  mining  is  carried  on  to  supply  the 
locomotives  of  the  railroad.  Other  mines  are  being 
opened  on  the  line.  In  a  treeless  country,  where  fuel 
would  otherwise  have  to  be  brought  from  the  Minnesota 
forests  or  the  Ohio  mines,  these  deposits  of  lignite  are 
of  inestimable  value.  The  coal  has  about  three-fourths 
the  heat-producing  capacity  01'  ordinnry  bituminous 
coal. 

About  fifty  miles  west  of  the  Missouri  the  country  trav- 
ersed by  the  railroad  loses  its  pronounced  hilly  character, 
and  broad  expanses  of  prairie  are  crossed,  bounded  on  the 
aa 


bAlUMriMtt  M«^A» l.^yW'* I 


338 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


north  and  south  by  isolated  buttes  or  low  ridges.  These 
prairies  have  a  rich  loam  soil,  underlaid  with  clay,  and 
are  exceedingly  attractive  to  the  eye  of  a  farmer.  In  this 
section,  as  already  mentioned,  several  agricultural  colonies 
have  been  planted  within  the  past  year,  each  with  its 
central  town  on  the  railroad.  The  entire  region  between 
the  Missouri  and  the  Bad  Lands  appears  likely  to  be 
found  valuable  for  occupancy  by  settlers  who  combine 
farming  with  stock  raising.  If  a  commercial  metropolis 
of  the  region  can  be  indicated  at  this  early  day,  it  will 
be  Mandan,  at  the  junction  of  the  Heart  River  with  the 
Missouri,  which  occupies  a  position  in  relation  to  the 
extensive  fertile  country  west  of  it  analogous  to  that 
of  Omaha  toward  Nebraska. 

The  fertile  prairies  and  valleys  of  Western  Dakota  trib- 
utary to  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  terminate  near 
the  western  boundary  of  the  territory  in  that  singular 
and  picturesque  region  known  as  the  Bad  Lands  of  the 
Little  Missouri ;  the  Mauvaises  Terres  of  the  early  maps, 
the  Pyramid  Park  of  the  recent  railroad  guides.  It  is 
difficult  to  convey  in  words  an  adequate  description  of 
this  region,  because  it  resembles  no  other  district  of  coun- 
try in  the  world,  and  a  familiar  comparison  cannot 
therefore  be  summoned  to  tht  writer's  aid.  Originally 
the  region  appears  to  have  been  a  level  grassy  plateau. 
Then  the  elements  of  fire  and  water  ran  riot  through  it 
for  centuries,  tearing  up  the  ground  in  profound  creases 
and  furrows,  tossing  up  huge  mounds,  and  bastion-like 
precipices,  turning  the  blue  clay  of  the  upheaved  eartli 
into  seams,  cliffs  and  castellated  peaks  of  red  terra  cotta, 
strewing  the  valleys  with  the  vestiges  of  petrified  forests, 
and  shaping  masses  of  rock  into  strange  resemblances  to 
animals  and  human  beings.  A  view  over  this  wonderful 
region  from  the  summit  of  one  of  the  lofty  buttes  con- 
veys the  most  singular  combination    of    impressions — 


If 


NORTH  DAKOTA. 


339 


es.  These 
I  clay,  and 
sr.  In  this 
ral  colonies 
h  with  its 
)n  between 
kely  to  be 
o  combine 
metropolis 
day,  it  will 
'er  with  the 
:ion  to  the 
us   to   that 

Dakota  trib- 
ninate  near 
lat  singular 
ands  of  the 
early  maps, 
ides.     It  is 
scription  of 
ict  of  coun- 
ion    cannot 
Originally 
5sy  plateau. 
;  through  it 
und  creases 
Dastion-likc 
aved   earth 
terra  cotta, 
ed  forests, 
nblances  to 
wonderful 
buttes  con- 
pressions — 


beauty,  grandeur,  grotesqueness,  and  above  all,  the  weird 
and  fantastic.  The  1  ndscape  is  so  strange  and  unearthly 
that  the  spectator  imagines  himself  transported  to  some 
other  planet,  where  nature  is  still  in  the  midst  of  its 
primal  throes  and  processes.  In  many  places  the  fires  of 
long-past  geological  periods  are  still  burning  beneath  the 
surface,  sending  out  sulphurous  clouds,  cracking  the  earth 
in  deep  fissures,  producing  pits  and  smoking  crevasses 
where  the  ground  has  fallen  in,  and  converting  the  clayey 
soil  into  masses  of  red  scoria.  Yet  everywhere  in  the 
valleys  in  this  strange  region  save  on  the  faces  ot  the 
steeper  buttes  the  grass  grows  luxuriantly,  covering 
even  the  high  summits  and  the  plateau  five  hundred 
feet  above  the  valleys,  and  herds  and  flocks  find  past- 
urage the  year  round.  The  Bad  Lands  form  an  admir- 
able grazing  country,  its  rugged  character  serving  to 
break  the  force  of  the  winter  winds  and  its  deep  depres- 
sions affording  shelter  to  stock.  The  region  is  fast  being 
occupied  by  ranchmen.  Roughly  measured,  it  may  be 
said  to  be  a  hundred  miles  long  by  thirty  wide,  and  it  is 
traversed  from  north  to  south  by  the  Little  Missouri 
River,  a  swift  muddy  stream. 

A  stretch  of  rolling  prairie,  inviting  to  the  herdsman, 
lies  beyond  the  Bad  Lands  of  the  Little  Missouri,  having 
a  width  of  about  thirty  miles  as  the  railroad  crosses  it; 
then  come  the  Bad  Lands  of  the  Yellowstone,  a  mass  of 
low  mud  and  sand  mountains,  worn  by  water  into  curious 
forms,  but  rarely  showing  traces  of  the  action  of  fire. 
The  broad  bands  and  masses  of  red  scoria,  capping  the 
high  hills  or  covering  their  sides  in  the  Mauvaises  Terres 
of  the  Little  Missouri  are  wanting;  but  there  are  many 
novel  mushroom-like  formations,  where  a  flat  sandstone 
rock  has  protected  the  clay  beneath  it  from  the  action 
of  the  rain,  and  as  the  ground  below  has  been  washed 
away  has  gradually  become   elevated   to   great    height. 


340 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  sides  of  the  buttes  are  of  a  bluish-gray  color,  seamed 
with  dark  bands  of  lignite  coal.  This  second  belt  of  Bad 
Land  country  is  inferior  in  interest  to  the  tourist,  and  of 
much  less  value  for  cattle  and  sheep  raising  than  that 
lying  along  the  Little  Missouri. 


lor,  seamed 
belt  of  Bad 
rist,  and  of 
:  than  that 


.-!-,t-.~^*   '■"i^  '•^•■a-.t-'i.-rii:^^:'  ""iS"- 


w. 


# 


w 


'ij'. 


..^^  ^-•'i;' 


*Tirr'F, 


<*-: 


i     •— 


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.Ml 


*^5it^^ 


:*<' 


L*"^' 


4f*'^- 


r?^**- 


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-*» 


Mount  Hood,  from  the  Columbia  River. 


|uw 

jjy 

^mf 

s^ 

I^JJhlrtH 

m 

m^ 

y 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

MONTANA. 

Extent  of  Montana — A  I.iiger  Area  tlian  that  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
— Two  Distinct  Regions — Tiie  Plains  ami  the  Mountains — V^ast  Stretches 
of  Treeless  Country  Covered  witii  Bundi-Grass — Rich  Irrigal)le  Lands 
alonj;  the  Rivers — Chief  Towns  of  Eastern  Montana — Indian  Reser- 
vations— Western  Montana,  its  Mountain  Ranges  and  Fertile  Valleys — 
Heavy  Crops  of  Small  Grains — Mining  for  Precious  Metals  still  the 
Chief  Industry — Coal  and  Iron  Deposits — The  Lumber  Business  ■ — Prin- 
cipal Mountain  Towns — Montana's  Climate — Influence  of  the  "Chinook 
Wind" — Some  Peculiarities  of  Climate — Beautiful  and  Varied  Scenery 
— A  Land  of  Wonders  and  Surprises. 

The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  traverses  the  Territory 
of  Montana  throughout  its  greatest  length,  entering  it 
on  its  eastern  border  and  leaving  it  not  far  from  its 
north-'vestern  corner,  with  a  total  length  of  main  line 
track  within  its  limits  of  743  miles.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  crossings  of  the  Belt  Mountains,  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  a  spur  of  the  latter  west  of  the  Missouri, 
the  line  runs  in  valleys  for  this  entire  distance;  thus  jus- 
tifying the  name  given  by  Governor  Stevens  to  the 
Northern  Pacific  route  in  his  report  of  the  first  survey, 
of  "  the  Valley  route  across  the  continent."  The  area  of 
Montana  is  larger  than  that  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
Its  length  from  cast  to  west  is  540  miles,  and  its  greatest 
width  from  north  to  south  is  305  miles.  It  is  without 
natural  boundaries,  save  on  the  West,  where  its  frontier 
is  the  lofty  range  of  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains.  It  has 
no  unity  in  respect  to  physical  geography,  being  com- 
posed of  two  distinct  regions — one  of  high,  rolling,  grassy 
plains  seamed  by  narrow  valleys,  and  the  other  of  a 
complex  system  of  mountain  ranges,  groups  and  spurs. 


342 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


bordering  long  strips  of  rich,  alluvial  valleys,  and  in  places 
inclosing  large  basins  of  nearly  level,  open  country.  The 
plain  region  embraces  all  of  Montana  east  of  the  ad- 
vanced spurs  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is  watered  by 
the  IMissouri  and  the  Yellowstone  and  their  tributaries, 
and  is  a  vast  pasture,  formerly  supporting  millions  of 
buffaloes,  and  now  being  rapidly  occupied  for  cattle  and 
sheep  ranges.  In  this  section  there  is  no  timber  save  the 
belts  of  cotton- wood  which  fringe  the  streams  and  a  lit- 
tle dwarf  pine  in  ravines  near  the  mountains.  The  coun- 
try looks  pretty  enough  in  May  and  June  when  the  grass 
is  green  and  flowers  abound,  but  the  vegetation  soon 
loses  its  freshness,  and  valleys,  slopes  and  far-reaching 
plains  present  no  colors  save  dusty  yellows  and  browns. 
A  desert-like  look  is  worn  by  the  landscapes  all  the  rest  of 
the  year.  The  country  is  by  no  means  a  desert,  however; 
for  the  dry  herbage  growing  in  little  tufts,  with  spaces  of 
bare  earth  between,  is  the  nutritious  bunch-grass,  whi^^h 
seems  to  combine  the  food  qualities  of  both  hay  and  grain, 
and  which  supports  cattle,  horses  and  sheep  the  year 
round.  The  grass  cures  itself  where  it  grows.  In  win- 
ter the  snow-fall  is  usually  light,  and  is  always  so  dry  that 
the  slopes  are  swept  bare  by  the  wind,  so  that  stock  find 
feeding-ground  in  the  severest  weather.  The  business 
of  stock-raising  on  these  enormous  natural  pastures  is 
assuming  greater  importance  every  year,  and  will  be  a 
permanent  industry.  Farming  is  only  practicable  on  the 
bottom  lands  and  bench  lands  in  the  narrow  valleys  of  the 
streams,  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  localities,  irri- 
gation is  required  for  the  regular  production  of  crops. 
The  Yellowstone  and  its  main  tributaries,  the  Powder, 
the  Rosebud,  the  Tongue,  the  Big  Horn,  and  the  Clark's 
Fork,  aftbrd  many  long  stretches  of  rich  bottom  land, 
easily  irrigated  and  exceedingly  productive  of  the  small 
grains  and  of  vegetables.     The  Musselshell  has  also  an 


.     r 


MONTANA. 


343 


1  in  places 
try.    The 
f  the  ad- 
^atcrcd  by 
ributaries, 
lillions    of 
cattle  and 
r  save  the 
1  and  a  lit- 
The  coun- 
1  the  grass 
ition   soon 
,r-reaching 
id  browns, 
the  rest  of 
,  however; 
1  spaces  of 
Mss,  whi'-h 
and  grain, 
the  year 
In  win- 
;o  dry  that 
stock  find 
:  business 
)astures   is 
will  be  a 
Die  on  the 
cys  of  the 
ities,  irri- 
of  crops. 
Powder, 
ic  Clark's 
om  land, 
the  small 
s  also  an 


agricultural  valley.  Rarely  are  the  valleys  of  these  rivers 
more  than  a  mile  or  two  wide,  and  they  are  hemmed  in 
by  steep  bluffs  from  two  to  five  hundred  feet  high,  or  by 
what  arc  known  as  bad-land  formations — bare,  crumb- 
ling buttes  of  clay  and  sandstone.  These  forbidding  walls 
are,  however,  only  the  escarpments  of  the  grassy,  rolling, 
table-lands,  through  which  the  rivers,  in  the  lapse  of  -^cs, 
have  worn  their  deep  crevice-like  valleys. 

Thn  chief  towns  of  Eastern  Montana  are  Glenoive, 
Miles  City  and  Billings,  on  the  Yellowstone,  and  Benton, 
at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Missouri.  They  are  all 
prosperous  trading  points,  shipping  cattle  and  wool,  and 
each  supplying  a  large  area  of  grazing  country  with 
goods.  The  valley  of  the  Yellowstone  near  each  is  culti- 
vated. Above  Billings  there  is  a  stretch  of  thirty  miles 
of  bottom  irrigated  by  a  main  ditch.  At  Miles  City  the 
valley  of  the  Tongue  River  joins  that  of  the  Yellow- 
stone, and  is  settled  by  farmers  for  fifty  miles.  A  large 
part  of  Eastern  Montana  is  still  occupied  by  Indians,  who 
possess  two  enormous  reservations.  That  of  the  Crows 
fronts  upon  the  Yellowstone  for  two  hundred  miles  and 
is  larger  than  the  State  of  Connecticut,  although  the 
tribe  .lumbers  only  3,000  souls.  Most  of  the  region 
north  of  the  Missouri  is  set  apart  for  the  Piegans,  Black- 
feet,  Gros  Ventres,  Ariekarees  and  Mandans,  who  to- 
gether number  less  than  10,000,  and  are  allowed  to  hold 
a  territory  greater  in  extent  than  the  State  of  Ohio. 
These  great  reservations  will,  no  doubt,  soon  be  cut 
down  by  Congressional  action  to  a  size  commensurate 
with  the  uses  of  the  Indians,  tlius  adding  to  the  grazing 
districts  of  Montana  available  for  settlement  many  thou- 
sands of  square  miles. 

With  this  brief  glance  at  the  plains,  let  us  now  turn  to 
the  mountain  regions  of  Montana.  The  mountains  are 
all  embraced   in    the  Rocky  Mountain    system,  and  the 


344 


NORTIIERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ranges  have  a  general  trend  a  little  west  of  north.  Besides 
the  main  range  forming  the  continental  watershed  between 
the  Missouri  and  Columbia,  there  are  many  spurs,  lateral 
ranges,  and  partially  isolated  groups.  None  of  the  peaks 
are  as  high  as  those  of  Colorado,  the  loftics*.  exceeding 
but  little  10,000  feet,  and  the  passes  are  much  lower 
than  those  in  the  same  range  further  south.  The  valleys 
and  "  parks  "  or  basins  inclosed  by  the  mountains  are 
also  considerably  lower  than  the  parks  of  Colorado,  and 
for  this  reason  are  available  for  agriculture.  These 
basins  range  in  altitude  from  3,000  to  5,000  feet,  and 
form  the  principal  grain  producing  areas  of  the  Terri- 
tory. They  are  supposed  to  be  the  beds  of  former 
lakes  which  have  received  from  the  washings  from  the 
surrounding  mountains  their  deep  alluvial  soil.  The 
rivers  run  out  of  these  basins  in  cafions,  or  very  narrow- 
valleys,  and  into  them  come  leaping  down  countless 
swift  streams  from  the  mountains,  supplying  abundant 
water  for  irrigation.  The  best  of  the  agricultural  basins 
or  valleys  are  those  of  the  three  forks  of  the  Missouri, 
the  Gallatin,  the  Jefferson,  and  the  Madison,  of  the  Mis- 
souri itself  below  its  first  cafion,  of  the  Beaver  Head,  and 
the  Prickly  Pear,  and  the  Judith  ;  and  west  of  the  Main 
Divide  those  of  the  Deer  Lodge,  the  Missoula,  and  the 
Bitter  Root.  The  latter,  a  valley  90  miles  long  with  an 
average  width  of  seven  miles,  is  the  most  extensive  and 
attractive  of  all.  Its  altitude  and  that  of  the  valley  of 
the  Missoula  into  which  it  debouches,  is  only  3,000  feet, 
or  about  1,500  less  than  that  of  the  rich  grain-growing 
valley  of  the  Gallatin  ;  and  it  has  a  mild  climate,  favora- 
ble to  fruit  culture.  In  all  these  irrigable  valleys 
farmers  raise  heavy  crops  of  wheat,  corn,  and  barley, 
watering  their  fields  with  moderate  labor  by  the  aid  of 
small  ditches,  and  finding  a  home  market  for  all  their 
surplus  products   in   the    mining   towns  and   upon   the 


MONTANA. 


345 


.    Besides 
\  between 
rs,  lateral 
the  peaks 
exceeding 
jch  lower 
he  valleys 
itains  are 
)rado,  and 
:.      These 
feet,  and 
the  Terri- 
of   former 
from  the 
oil.      The 
:ry  narrow- 
countless 
abundant 
ral  basins 
Missouri, 
f  the  Mis- 
rlead,  and 
the  Main 
,  and  the 
g  with  an 
nsive  and 
valley  of 
,000  feet, 
n-growing 
te,  favora- 
;    valleys 
d  barley, 
he  aid  of 
•  all  their 
upon   the 


stock  ran'-hes.  Besides  the  small  grains,  all  the  root 
crops  thrive  abundantly.  Montana  potatoes,  especi- 
ally, have  a  flavor,  a  solidity  and  a  keeping  quality 
nowhere  excelled.  In  the  Bitter  Root  Valley  Indian 
corn  is  raised,  and  apples,  cherries,  and  berries  are 
produced.  Montana  farmers  are  favorably  situated  in 
many  respects.  Their  produce  sells  for  higher  prices 
at  home  than  it  would  bring  in  New  York  City,  the  de- 
mand being  gr(;ater  than  the  supply.  They  are  able  by 
irrigation  to  raise  larger  crops  than  are  raised  in  the  best 
agricultural  sections  of  the  West,  such  as  Illinois  or  Iowa. 
Their  fields  are  neither  parched  by  drought  nor  flooded 
by  excessive  rainfall,  and  experience  teaches  them  how 
much  water  to  supply  from  their  ditches.  Then  there 
are  ample  pastures  on  the  mountain  sides  open  for  ranges 
for  their  herds,  and  they  often  grow  rich  by  the  increase 
of  their  cattle  and  horses  while  living  in  comfort  upon 
the  yield  of  their  fields. 

Mining  for  the  precious  metals  is  still  the  chief  indus- 
try in  Montana,  but  will  soon  be  outstripped  in  its  annual 
returns  by  stock  raising.  The  yearly  yield  of  gold  is,  in 
round  figures,  $3,000,000 ;  and  of  silver,  $3,500,000. 
Copper  is  beginning  to  make  a  considerable  figure  in 
the  mining  statistics.  Since  1862,  Montana  has  yielded 
more  placer  gold  than  any  other  State  or  Territory  ex- 
cept California,  the  total  amount  being  stated  as  high  as 
$130,000,000.  The  silver  industry  is  of  more  recent  date, 
and  centres  at  one  place — Butte,  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  Main  Divide.  Gold  is  found  in  quartz  seams  and 
placer  deposits  on  both  slopes  of  the  Main  Divide,  and 
also  east  of  the  Belt  Range,  in  the  Judith  Mountains, 
and  in  the  Yellowstone  Mountains,  on  the  head  waters 
of  the  Clark's  Fork  of  the  Yellowstone.  There  is  very 
little  of  the  old-fashioned  placer-mining  carried  on,  most 
of  the  present  yield  being  from  quartz.    Hydraulic  mining, 


w 


346 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


which  sweeps  down  whole  acres  of  ground  with  power 
ful  streams  of  water,  is  prosecuted  at  the  heads  of  several 
of  the  once  famous  gulches,  where  miners  used  to  wash 
the  pay-dirt  with  pans,  sluices,  and  rockers.  Copper 
mining  has  of  late  become  an  important  industry  at 
Butte,  and  good  undeveloped  seams  of  this  metal  exist 
in  other  localities.  Deposits  of  iron  ore  exist  in  many 
parts  of  the  Territory,  but  have  not  been  worked.  Coal 
abounds.  Near  the  Yellowstone,  Musselshell,  and  Mis- 
souri Rivers,  there  are  immense  beds  of  lignile,  easily 
worked,  where  they  crop  out  from  the  bluffs  along  the 
valleys.  Veins  of  a  harder  coal,  which  can  be  coked, 
have  lately  been  found  in  the  Bull  and  Belt  Mountains. 
Evidently  the  mining  industry  of  Montana  is  destined 
to  much  greater  development  than  it  has  yet  attained. 
Population  and  capital  begin  to  flow  through  the  Terri- 
tory along  the  line  of  the  new  railroad,  seeking  promis- 
ing openings  for  enterprise.  It  is  not  probable  that  new 
placers  will  be  discovered,  but  there  are  hundreds  of  veins 
of  low-grade  ore,  yielding  enough  gold  and  silver  to  make 
their  working  a  reliably  profitable  business  now  that  rail 
transportation  is  close  at  hand,  which  could  not  be 
opened  with  any  chance  of  success  when  machinery  and 
supplies  had  to  be  hauled  for  hundreds  of  miles  over 
mountain  roads.  Besides,  there  is  great  promise  of  pros- 
perity in  the  coal  and  iron  industries,  the  beginnings  of 
which  have  scarcely  yet  b.^en  made. 

One  more  inportant  industry  remains  to  be  men- 
tioned— that  of  lumber  production.  In  the  northwestern 
portion  of  Montana  there  is  an  immense  forest  belt 
stretching  along  both  sides  of  the  Pend  d'Oreille  or 
Clark's  Fork  River  for  nearly  two  hundred  miles,  and 
extending  beyond  to  the  British  boundary,  and  west  into 
Idaho,  around  the  beautiful  mountain  lakes  of  Pend 
d'Oreille   and    Coeur   d'Alene.       The   timber   is    Rocky 


til  power 
of  several 
d  to  wash 
,     Copper 
idustry  at 
letal  exist 
t  in  many 
:ed.     Coal 
and   Mis- 
Ile,  easily 
along  the 
be  coked, 
lountains. 
i  destined 
t  attained, 
the  Terri- 
ig  promis- 
p  that  new 
ds  of  veins 
r  to  make 
that  rail 
not   be 
unery  and 
iles  over 
e  of  pros- 
innings  of 

be  men- 
thwestern 
rest  belt 
Dreille  or 
iles,  and 
west  into 
of  Pend 
js   Rocky 


MONTANA. 


34; 


Mountain  pine,  fir,  spruce,  cedar,  tamarack,  with  a  little 
white  pine,  and  the  growth  is  very  dense.  The  business 
of  cutting  lumber  in  this  magnificent  forest  began  when 
the  railroad  penetrated  it,  and  was  at  first  confined  to 
supplying  the  wants  of  the  road.  Now  that  the  forest  is 
traversed  from  end  to  end  by  the  track,  mills  are  being 
established  to  supply  with  building  material  anil  fuel  the 
farming  valleys  and  mining  districts  of  Montana  and  the 
great  treeless  agricultural  plain  of  Washington  Territory. 

In  the  mountainous  portions  of  Montana  the  principal 
towns  arc  Livingston,  at  the  head  of  the  Yellowstone  Val- 
ley, a  new  creation  of  the  railroad,  hopeful  of  rapid  growth 
from  the  development  of  coal  and  iron  mines,  and  already 
enjoying  considerable  trade  with  the  grazing  country 
north  of  it,  and  with  the  tourist  travel  that  goes  over 
the  branch  railroad  to  the  National  Park  ;  Bozeman,  the 
prosperous  trading  centre  of  an  extensive  agricultural 
region;  Helena,  the  capital  of  the  Territory,  and  the 
chief  commercial  town  ;  Butte,  the  centre  of  the  most 
productive  mining  district;  Deer  Lodge,  a  pretty  place, 
with  good  educational  advantages,  and  some  tributarv 
mining  and  agricultural  country;  and  Missoula,  at  the 
junction  of  the  Bitter  Root  and  Missoula  valleys,  chiefly 
an  agricultural  trading  point,  but  lately  turning  its  atten- 
tion to  lumbering  and  mining.  Of  these,  Helena  and 
Butte  arc  the  largest,  and  have  probably,  at  this  time, 
1883,  seven  thousand  inhabitants  each. 

In  Montana,  climate  depends  largely  on  altitude.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  whole  region  has  a  much  lower  mean 
annual  temperature  than  Dakota  and  Minnesota,  which 
lie  within  the  same  lines  of  latitude,  and  the  further  west 
one  goes  on  east  aisd  west  lines  the  milder  are  the  win- 
ters. The  mean  temperature  of  the  Bitter  River  Valley, 
which  is  in  the  latitude  of  Northern  Maine,  is  about  the 
same  as  that  of  Pennsylvania  and  Central  Ohio ;   that  of 


348 


jXORTiiekx  pacific  railroad. 


the  Gallatin  Valley,  which  is  about  1,500  feet  higher, 
compares  with  Central  New  York.  The  isothermal  line 
of  50""  Fahrenheit,  which  passes  through  Harrisburg, 
Cleveland  and  Chicago,  runs  from  southeast  to  northwest 
through  Montana  and  passes  into  the  British  possessions. 
This  fact  is  explained  by  the  influence  of  the  great  Japan 
Ocean  current,  which  produces  what  is  known  as  the 
"Chinook  wind,"  greatly  modifying  the  climate  of  the 
north  Pacific  coast  and  blowing  across  the  low  passes 
of  the  Rocky  mountain  ranges  through  the  valleys  of 
Montana.  It  is  interesting  to  note,  as  bearing  upon  the 
matter  of  climate,  that  the  average  alt'ludv.  of  Montana  is 
only  3,000  feet,  while  that  of  Coiontdo  is  7,000,  of  Wyom- 
ing 6,000,  and  of  New  Mexico  and  Nevada  5,600.  It  is 
this  peculiarity,  as  well  as  the  warm  western  vind,  which 
give  to  the  Territory  its  mild  winter  climate  and  make  its 
bunch-gras^,  plains  much  better  stock  ranges  than  those 
of  the  territories  further  south.  In  Eastern  Montana  not 
much  snow  falls.  In  the  central  valleys  there  is  more,  and 
it  is  not  so  dry ;  while  in  the  northeastern  portion,  mainly 
covered  by  the  Pend  d'Oreille  forest,  snow  sometimes  fails 
to  the  depth  of  three  feet.  It  does  not  remain  long,  how- 
ever, being  soon  melted  by  the  "  Chinook."  Almost 
every  x-alley  has  some  local  peculiarity  of  climate,  depend- 
ing upon  its  altitude  and  the  height  and  trend  of  the 
neighboring  mountain  ranges,  but  the  whole  Territory 
may  fairly  lay  claim  to  the  blessings  of  a  pure  stimulating 
atmosphere,  and  freedom  from  malaria.  From  what  has 
been  said  of  the  mild  climate,  the  impression  should  not 
be  gathered  that  there  is  no  extremely  cold  weather. 
There  are  cold  snaps  every  winter,  when  the  mercury  goes 
down  to  30"",  40"  and  sometimes  even  to  50'  below  zero, 
but  they  are  of  short  duration,  and  the  dryness  of  the  air 
makes  the  low  temperature  less  dangerous  and  less 
perceptible  than   is  the  lowest  range  of  an  ordinary  win- 


.VOXT.tX.I. 


349 


tcr  in  the  Middle  States.  In  sumi.icr,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  arc  days  wlien  the  thermometer  will  rej^istcr  90'  in 
the  shade,  but  this  will  only  be  in  the  midday  hours,  the 
evening:-,  being  always  cool  and  blankets  being  invariably 
needed  at  night. 

The  scenery  of  Montana  is  wonderfully  varied  and  at- 
tractive. In  the  eastern  portion  the  wide,  breezy  plains, 
the  fantastic  buttes  of  sandstone  and  indurated  clay  that 
border  the  water  courses,  and  tlie  deep,  rich  ;>Uu\ial  val- 
leys have  their  peculiar  charm.  Once  amoii„>  !iie  raUjjes 
of  the  Rocky  Mountain  system,  the  traveler  finds  new 
beauties  at  every  mile  of  his  journey.  There  are  isolateil 
groups  of  sharp,  snow-flecked  peaks,  like  the  Cra/.\'  Moun- 
tains, great  glittering  domes  and  ridges  like  the  Big 
Snowy,  great  billowy  pine-covered  ranges,  like  the  Belt 
Range  and  the  Main  Divide,  with  many  pyramidal  peaks 
towering  above  the  general  summit,  and  huge  swelling  but- 
tresses of  rock  and  snow  like  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains. 
In  the  midst  of  all  this  tumultuous  sea  of  mountains  lie 
smiling  green  valleys  with  flocks  and  herds,  presenting 
Alpine  pictures  of  pastoral  life.  Then  there  are  profound 
clefts  in  the  mountain  walls,  like  the  two  great  caHons  of 
the  Missouri  and  the  superb  caAon  of  the  Tend  il'Oreille, 
where  the  tremendous  brown  cliffs  take  on  strange  bright 
colors  from  the  decompor>if*on  of  metallic  strata;  lovely 
lakes,  like  Flathead  Lake,  anc'  many  cold  deep  pools  high 
up  near  the  snow  on  i\\/.,.y  mountaii.  shelves.  Charming 
natural  parks  are  tr.vversed  where  the  open  wooilland 
growth  and  the  grassy  ground  bordering  swift  rivulets 
suggest  camp  life  and  long  excursions  in  the  sadille,  anil 
dense  forests  where  tl;e  light  of  day  scarcel)'  penetrates,  It 
is  a  land  of  surprises,  of  wonders  and  of  adventure,  which 
will  become  in  time  the  pleasurc-grounil  of  America,  as 
Switzerland  is  now  the  pleasure-ground  of  Kuropc. 

The  future  of  this  vast  and  attractive  region  it  is  not  dif- 


':■ 


350 


NORTHERN'  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ficult  to  predict.  It  can  never  maintain  a  dense  popula- 
tion, but  its  valleys  will  fill  up  with  farmers  carefully  cul- 
tivating the  rich  soil  by  the  aid  of  irrigating  processes  ; 
its  immense  bunch-grass  pastures  will  support  a  hardy 
adventurous  race  of  stock-raisers,  loving  the  saddle  and  an 
outdoor  life  ;  its  mines  of  the  precious  metals  will  be  ex- 
tensively developed  by  the  cheapening  of  machinery, 
transportation  and  labor;  its  forests  will  Drove  sources  of 
wealth,  and  thousands  of  health  and  pleasure-seekers  will 
build  up  summer  resorts  among  its  mountains.  It  is  not 
rash  to  predict  that  the  present  population  of  75,000  will 
rapidly  increase,  and,  by  the  close  of  this  century,  will 
luive  become  at  least  half  a  million. 


ISC  popula. 
rcfully  cul- 
proccsses  ; 
rt  a  linrdy 
Idle  and  an 
A'ill  be  cx- 
iiachinery, 
sources  of 
cekcrs  Mill 
It  is  not 
75.000  will 
ntury,  will 


1::^' 


|.  ..■,;!■»,: 


'1' 


\^m 


s 

O 


d 

rl 


0 

Ol 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

NORTHERN    IDAHO    AND    WASHINGTON. 

Form  of  Idaho  Territory — Lake  Pciul  it'Oreillo  aiul  its  I'orcsi — Tlie 
Grain  and  Pasture  I\eyion  of  Northern  Idalio  and  Kastern  Wasli- 
iiii;ton — Other  Arahle  IJelts — The  lii,^;  I\-nd  and  N'akima  Country — 
I'rinci|)al  Towns — Western  Washin};t<>n — A  Ref^ion  of  Hit;h  Mountains, 
Dense  Forests,  and  Deep  Inlets  of  the  Sea — Ma^jniliccnt  Snow  I'eak.s — 
Tlie  Lumber  Industry — I'arming  Districts  in  Narrow  ^'alleys — Exten- 
sive IJeds  of  Coal — I'uget  Sounil  Towns — The  Coluinliia  River  \'alley — 
Climatie  Conditions. 


Wt: 


a 
o 

u 

u 

o 

a 


0 
9m 


The  shape  of  the  Territory  of  Idaho  resembles  that  of 
a  le^  of  mutton,  tlic  shank  beni^;  thrust  up  between  the 
Territories  of  Montana  and  Wasliington,  as  far  as  the 
boundary  of  the  l^ritish  possessions.  It  is  tliis  shank  in 
which  the  Northern  Pacific  Railway  is  interested.  The 
road  runs  across  it  from  east  to  west  around  Lake  Pcnd 
d'Oreiile.  In  the  region  seen  from  the  track  there  is 
little  of  interest  save  to  the  lover  of  lake  and  mountain 
scenery,  for  the  great  forest  described  in  the  preceding 
chapter  covers  the  surface  of  the  country,  and  is  nut  left 
behind  until  the  plains  of  Eastern  Washington  are  reached. 
South  of  the  road,  and  on  the  boundary  l>etween  Idaho 
and  Washington,  lies  Lake  Cuiur  d'Alene,  rivaling  in  the 
beauty  of  its  waters  and  the  grandeur  of  its  mountain  sur- 
roundings Lake  Pcnd  d'Oreiile;  and  further  south,  where 
the  mountain  range  has  a  southeasterly  curve,  the  forest 
disappears  and  there  is  a  region  of  high,  grassy  plains, 
handsome  to  the  eye,  and  responsive  to  culture.  This 
region,  identical  in  its  character  with  that  l>"ing  across  the 
artificial  boundary  line  separating  Idaho  from  Washing- 
ton, extends  soutii  to  the  Snake  River,  and  up  the  Clear- 
water River  from  its  junction  with  the  Snake  at  Lcwisloa 


M' 


352 


NOH  TllEKX  PA  CIFIC  RA ILROAD. 


for  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles.  The  whole  belt  of  fertile 
country  immediately  west  of  the  mountains  may  roughly 
be  described  as  having  a  length  of  300  miles  and  an  aver- 
age breadth  of  sixty  miles,  and  as  lapping  over  into  Idaho 
on  the  east,  and  reaching  into  Oregon  at  its  southwestern 
end.  It  follows  the  direction  of  the  Cceur  d'AlCme,  Bitter 
Root  and  Blue  Mountains,  connecting  ranges,  in  a  broad, 
semicircular  sweep.  West  of  it  lies  a  dry  region  of  sage 
brush,  bunch-grass,  and  dusty  soil  which  docs  not  receive 
sufficient  rain-fall  for  the  growth  of  crops,  but  is  of  con- 
siderable value  for  pasture.  The  moisture-laden  air  com- 
ing from  the  west  is  robbed  of  pari:  of  its  burden  by  the 
high  Cascade  range.  With  what  is  left  it  appears  to 
circle  around  the  VAwc  Mountains  and  the  Bitter  Root  and 
Cojur  d'Alime  chain  as  arouml  the  rim  of  a  bowl,  to  re- 
fresh with  showers  the  country  lying  near  their  feet.  In 
all  this  fine  agricultural  region  the  annual  rain-fall  is  theo- 
retically too  scanty  for  the  successful  growing  of  crops, 
being  only  fourteen  inches,  but  most  of  it  comes  In  the 
months  when  the  fanr.cr  needs  it.  After  the  grain  is 
nearly  ripe  there  is  no  more  rain  until  late  in  the  fall. 
The  face  of  the  r^'^lon  we  are  describing  is  broken  into 
countless  hills  and  knolls,  but  their  sides  and  summits  are 
as  fertile  as  the  valleys  between  them  ;  indeed,  the  farm- 
ers prefer  the  tops  of  the  hills  for  their  fielils  of  wheat 
and  flax.  The  streams  run  in  deep  creases  from  two  to 
five  hundred  feet  below  the  general  level,  bordered  in 
places  by  buttresses  of  basaltic  rock,  and  in  others  by 
steep  grassy  slopes,  on  which  grows  here  and  there  a  lone- 
some i)ine.  Only  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountain  ranges 
is  timber  found  in  a  continuous  forest  growth. 

A  recent  writer,  speaking  of  the  soil  and  climate  of  this 
region,  says  :  "  East  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  the  soil  is 
a  dark  loam  of  great  depth,  composed  of  alluvial  deposits 
and  decomposed  lava  overlying  a  clay  subsoil.     This,  in 


A'OKTJ/ERiV  IDAHO  AXD    WASIIIXGTOiV. 


J30 


turn,  rests  upon  a  basaltic  formation  uliicli  is  so  far  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground  as  to  be  visible  onl)-  on  the 
banks  of  the  deep  water-courses.  The  constituents  of 
this  soil  adapt  the  land  peculiarly  to  the  production  of 
wheat.  All  the  mineral  salts  which  arc  necessary  to  the 
perfect  growth  of  this  cereal  are  abundant,  reproducing 
themselves  constantly  as  the  processes  of  gradual  decom- 
position in  this  soil  of  volcanic  origin  proceed.  The  clods 
are  easily  broken  by  the  plow,  and  the  ground  (juickly 
crumbles  on  exposure  to  the  atmosi)here.  Although  the 
dry  season  continues  for  months,  this  light  porous  land 
retains  and  absorbs  enough  moisture  from  the  atmosphere, 
after  its  particles  have  been  partially  disintegrated,  to  in- 
sure perfect  growths  and  full  harvests.  This  assertion  is 
so  at  variance  with  common  experience  that  it  might  well 
be  questioned.  Happily,  it  is  susceptible  of  explanation. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  is  scarcely  a  shower  between 
May  and  the  following  October,  and  that  the  average 
rain-fall  for  the  year  does  not  exceed  twenty  inches,  there 
is  always  the  requisite  moisture  for  maturing  the  crops. 
Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  if  the  rain  were  greatly  in 
excess  of  this  low  average,  damage  would  certainly  ensue  ; 
and  it  is  equally  sure,  if  successful  farming  depended  upon 
the  limited  rain-fall,  there  would  be  poor  harvests.  The 
clouds  supply  only  in  part  the  moisture  which  is  needed. 
The  warm  air-currents,  surcharged  with  vapor,  which 
sweep  inland  from  the  ocean  up  the  channel  of  the  Co 
lumbia  River,  prevent  drought.  The  effect  of  these  at- 
mospheric currents  in  temperir.g  the  climate  has  already 
been  described.  Their  influeiue  upon  the  vegetation  is  no 
less  vital.  The  moisture  with  which  they  are  laden  is 
held  in  suspension  during  the  day,  diffused  over  the  face 
of  the  countr)'.  At  night  it  is  CDudensed  by  the  cooler 
temperature,  and  precipitated  in  the  form  of  a  fine  mist 
on  every  exposed  particle  of  surface  which  earth  and 
13 


m 


• 


354 


NOK  77 ffCKX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


plant  present.  The  effect  is  that  of  a  copious  shower. 
This  is  api)arent  on  taking  a  morning  walk  through  the 
grass,  which  can  only  be  done  at  the  cost  of  wet  feet.  In 
this  region  it  is  no  unusual  phenomena  for  a  smart  show  cr 
to  fall  when  clouds  are  invisible  and  the  sun  is  shining. 
This  occurrence  is  explained  also  upon  the  theory  that 
the  vapor  in  the  atmosphere  comes  in  contact  with  an 
upper  current  of  cold  air,  which  causes  rapid  condensa- 
tion and  consequent  rain.  A  summer  drought,  therefore, 
which  in  most  climates  is  a  calamity,  is  here  a  benefit. 
The  soil  needs  no  more  rains  after  tlio^c  of  tlic  spring  :i:-'j 
over,  and  the  farmer  may  depend  upon  cloudless  skies  at 
harvest  time." 

In  Eastern  Washington,  by  which  term  is  designated 
all  of  the  Territory  l\'ing  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains, 
there  are  other  smaller  arable  belts  besides  this  extensive 
one.  The  Big  Bend  country,  inclosed  on  two  sides  by 
the  Columbia,  is  a  region  nearly  level,  with  fertile  prai- 
ries alternating  with  streaks  and  patches  of  rocky  or 
sandy  ground  and  with  occasional  groves  of  pines.  On 
the  prairies  the  soil  is  good  for  the  small  grains,  and  the 
nutritious  bunch-grass  grow«  luxuriantly.  North  of  this 
region  lie  the  Colville  and  other  fertile  valleys,  runninL; 
up  into  a  confused  aggregation  of  mountains,  which  oc- 
cupies the  northern  point  of  the  Territory  and  joins  the 
Cascades  with  the  Rocky  Mountains.  West  of  the  Co- 
lumbia there  is  another  fertile  valley,  that  of  the  Yakiniii 
River,  which,  however,  requires  irrigation  for  the  regular 
production  of  crops.  This,  too,  is  an  open  grass  country, 
the  timber  beginning  only  on  the  first  hills  of  the  moun- 
tains. 

Across  Eastern  Washington,  from  east  to  west,  runs  the 
Snake  River,  which,  coming  from  the  south,  makes  a  ris^lit 
angle  at  Lewiston,  where  it  receives  the  Clearwater, 
The  main  stream  of  the  Columbia  makes  many   bends, 


jYORTHERX  IDAHO  AND    WASIflXGTOX. 


355 


orth  of  thi^ 


I  the  Yakima 
the  regular 
iss  country, 

If  the  inoun- 


Clearwatcr. 


but  has  a  general  southerly  course  through  Washing- 
ton, until  it  receives  the  Snake,  when  it  runs  almost  clue 
west  to  the  sea,  furnishing  for  that  part  of  its  course 
the  boundary  line  between  Washington  and  Oregon. 
The  other  considerable  rivers  of  Eastern  Washington  are 
the  Palouse,  a  tributary  of  the  Snake;  the  Yakima,  the 
Spokane,  the  Wcenatchec  and  the  Okinakane,  tributaries 
of  the  Columbia,  The  chief  towns  of  the  region  arc 
Walla  Walla — the  oldest  and  largest  of  them  all  and  the 
first  centre  of  wheat  growing  east  of  the  Cascades  ;  Day- 
ton, I'atalia,  and  Pomeroy,  south  of  Snake  River;  Colfax, 
Spokane  Falls,  Cheney,  and  Sprague,  north  of  the  river. 
In  North  Idaho,  which  is  geographically  a  unit  with 
Washington,  and  which  has  long  sought  annexation  to 
that  Territory,  the  large  towns  are  Lewiston  and  Moscow. 
Turning  now  to  Western  Washington,  we  find  a  ,cgion 
totally  different  in  its  appearance  from  the  eastern  sec- 
tion of  the  Territory.  Here  there  are  no  sunny,  fertile 
plains.  Dense  forests  of  gigantic  firs  cover  the  face  of 
the  country.  The  blue  salt  waters  of  that  superb  inlet, 
Puget  Sound,  reach  southward  into  the  heart  of  the  re- 
gion for  nearly  two  hundred  miles.  The  lofty  range  of 
the  Cascade  Mountains  is  a  barrier  so  rugged  that  it  is 
crossed  by  few  people  besides  Indians  and  trappers. 
All  travel  bound  for  Eastern  Washington  goes  around 
by  way  of  the  Columbia  River.  The  highest  peaks  of 
the  range,  Tacoma,  Adams  and  Haker,  rear  dazzling 
summits  of  perpetual  snow  into  the  firmament.  These 
magnificent  peaks  have  an  apparent  altitude  much 
greater  than  that  of  the  highest  Alps,  from  the  fact  that 
they  are  seen  from  the  sea  level  towering  above  the 
forests  and  reflected  on  the  calm  waters  of  the  Sound.  A 
lower  range,  called  the  Olympic  Mountains — the  northern 
prolongation  of  the  Coast  Range,  which  runs  through 
California  and  Oregon — divides  the  Sound  Country  from 


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35<3 


N0K7IIERX  PAC/I'IC  RAILROAD. 


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the  sea-coast.  The  forests,  which  come  clown  from  the 
slopes  of  the  Cascade  Raiitje,  envelop  all  the  bays,  straits 
and  havens  of  the  Sound,  and  extend  over  the  inter- 
vening ranj^e  as  far  as  the  sea. 

In  Western  Washington,  the  chief  industry  is  lumber- 
ing. Mere  are  found  the  largest  saw-mills  in  the  world, 
exporting  their  product  to  all  the  cities  of  the  west  coast  of 
America,  as  far  south  as  Valparaiso  and  also  to  Australia. 
China  and  Japan,  and  sending  masts  and  spars  to  the  ship- 
yards of  Europe.  The  slaughter  of  the  forests  along  the 
Sound  to  sujjply  these  great  mills  with  logs,  has  gone  on 
now  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  but  so  dense 
is  the  growth  of  gigantic  firs,  that  only  the  edge  of  the 
woods  fronting  upon  the  water  has  been  notched  here 
and  there  by  the  operations  of  the  lumberman.  Stand- 
ing close  by  the  water  side,  so  that  ships  can  load  from 
their  wharves,  the  saw-mills  arc  each  the  centre  of  a 
village,  the  home  of  the  mill-men  and  of  the  loggers, 
whose  camps  are  in  the  woods  near  by.  To  the  tourist 
sailing  on  the  Sound  the  shores  appear  an  unbroken 
wilderness,  save  where  space  has  been  cleared  for  a 
town  or  a  logging  camp.  There  are  many  farming  dis- 
tricts, however,  back  of  the  thick  green  screen  of  the  fir>. 
where  little  rivers,  flowing  down  from  the  melting  snows 
on  the  high  mountains,  make  narrow  strips  of  alluvial 
bottoms,  and  in  some  places  the  tidal  flats  at  the  heads 
of  bays  have  been  redeemed  by  dikes  and  converted  into 
valuable  farms.  Very  little  clearing  has  been  done  Id 
obtain  fields  from  the  forests,  but  as  the  country  becomes 
better  settled  and  land  more  valuable,  many  tracts  from 
which  the  larger  trees  have  been  cut  by  the  lumbernuii 
begin  to  be  occupied  by  settlers,  who  use  fire  to  aid  the 
labors  of  the  axe  and  saw. 

The  Puget  Sound  country  has  a  second  great  natural 
source  of  wealth.     Along  the  base  of  the  Ca>cadc  Moun- 


KORT/fEAW  IDAHO  A. YD    IVASI/IXGrOX. 


357 


tains  extend  large  beds  of  coal,  varying  in  quality  from 
a  soft  brown  lignite  to  a  hard  black  bituminous,  which 
cokes,  and  is  therefore  available  for  smelting  iron.  The 
coal  is  brought  to  tide  water  at  Seattle  and  Tacoma  by 
railroads  leading  up  to  the  mines,  and  shipped  to  San 
Francisco  and  other  points  in  steam  colliers  and  sailing  ves- 
sels. Although  the  yearly  output  is  already  considerable, 
the  business  must  be  regardetl  as  only  in  its  infancy.  It  is 
destined  to  grow  steadily  with  the  increase  of  population 
and  the  development  of  commerce  and  manufactures  in 
the  Pacific  Coast  communities,  and  to  become  a  source  of 
great  and  unfailing  wealth.  The  researches  made  during 
the  past  year  by  the  geologists  of  the  Northern  Trans- 
continental Survey  show  that  the  coal-field  of  Puget 
Sound  is  practically  inexhaustible.  Its  iinportance  as  a 
fictor  in  the  development  of  the  Pacific  Coast  can  hardly 
be  overestimated.  Iron  ore  is  also  found  upon  the  Sound, 
and  a  fair  beginning  has  been  made  in  smelting  it  at  Port 
Townsend.  The  coast  region  of  Washington,  lying  be- 
tween the  Oljnipic  Mountains  and  the  sea,  resembles  the 
Sound  country  in  its  general  features,  being  forest-clad, 
and  offering  open  lands  for  farming  only  near  bays  and 
rivers.  Gray's  Harbor  and  Shoalwatcr  Hay  afford  havens 
for  vessels  of  moderate  draft.  A  sparse  but  steadily  in- 
creasing population  of  farmers,  woodsmen,  and  fishermen 
inhabits  this  region,  and  find  a  market  for  their  products 
by  shipping  them  to  Astoria,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia River. 

The  towns  on  Puget  Sound  arc  all  prospering.  Taco- 
ma, the  terminus  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  and 
the  shipping  port  for  the  mines  of  Wilkeson  and  Carbon- 
ade,  thirty  miles  distant,  by  the  Cascade  Branch  Railroad, 
is  a  rapidly  growing  place,  with  4,000  people,  and  good 
prospects  of  soon  having  ten  times  as  many.  Seattle,  the 
ct)mmercial  centre  of  the  Middle  and  Lower  Sound  coun- 


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358 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


try,  has  7,000  inhabitants,  a  railroad  to  the  Newcastle 
coal  field,  a  branch  railroad  connecting  it  directly  with 
the  Northern  Pacific  Cascade  Branch,  and  indirectly 
with  Portland  and  the  East  by  way  of  Tacoma,  and 
is  the  rival  of  that  place  for  the  position  of  future 
metropolis  of  the  Sound.  Olympia,  at  the  head  of  the 
Sound,  the  Territorial  Capital,  is  a  handsome  village  of 
about  2,500  inhabitants,  with  a  narrow  gauge  railroad  con- 
necting it  with  the  Northern  Pacific.  Of  about  the  same 
size  is  Port  Townsend,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Sound, 
which  is  the  Government  port  of  entry  and  an  outfitting 
place  for  ships.  Other  places  of  some  importance  are 
Steilacoom,  Whatcom,  Snohomish,  and  La  Conner. 
Across  the  strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca,  the  broad  entrance  to 
the  Sound,  is  the  handsome  little  city  of  Victoria,  capital 
of  British  Columbia,  a  place  closely  connected  in  its 
commercial  relations  with  the  Sound  ports. 

Along  the  Columbia  River,  on  the  Washington  bank, 
the  only  towns  are  Vancouver,  the  headquarters  of  the 
military  department,  and  Kalama,  where  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  leaves  the  river  and  turns  northward  to  the 
Sound — the  former  having  1,200  inhabitants,  and  the  lat- 
ter 500.  There  are  a  i^iw  farms  along  the  river  bottom, 
and  here  and  there,  at  long  intervals,  a  saw-mill  hamlet,  or 
a  salmon  canner}',  with  its  dependent  village  of  fishermen. 
Lumbering  and  fishing  are  the  chief  occupations.  The 
salmon  fishery,  of  which  more  will  be  said  in  the  chapter 
on  Oregon,  is  carried  on  all  along  the  river  for  a  hundred 
miles  above  its  mouth,  but  chiefly  on  the  bar  and  on  the 
waters  of  the  wide  estuary.  The  canneries  are  on  both 
shores,  but  the  business  centres  at  Astoria,  in  Oregon, 
which  is  the  shipping  point.  Of  the  average  annual 
product  probably  one-half  should  be  credited  to  Wash- 
ington in  any  statement  of  her  resources. 

In  respect  to  climate,  Washington  is  divided  into  two 


Newcastle 
rectly  with 

indirectly 
:oma,  and 

of  future 
ead  of  the 

village  of 
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X  Conner, 
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ted    in    its 

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:rs  of  the 

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Ions.     The 

e  chapter 
1  hundred 

d  on  the 
on  both 
Oregon, 

e   annual 

to  Wash- 

into  two 


NORTHERN  IDAHO  AND    WASHINGTON. 


359 


distinct  regions  by  the  Cascade  Mountains,  differing 
widely  from  each  other  in  mean  temperature,  average 
rain-fall,  and  in  the  general  character  of  their  seasons. 
Eastern  Washington,  although  in  the  latitude  of  Lower 
Canada  and  Northern  Maine,  has  the  annual  mean  tem- 
perature of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  It  is  subject,  how- 
ever, to  greater  extremes  of  temperature  than  those 
States.  In  winter  there  are  short  cold  spells  when  the 
mercury  drops  to  20°  or  30°  below  zero,  but  there  is  no 
long-continued  period  of  great  cold  as  in  Dakota,  for  as 
soon  as  the  wind  blows  from  the  west,  the  temperature 
rises  rapidly.  The  springs  are  late  and  cold,  and  the 
summers  are  hot — a  dry  heat,  not  as  much  felt  with  the 
mercury  at  105°  as  a  temperature  of  85°  in  most  sea-coast 
regions.  Evenings  and  mornings  are  cool  in  the  hottest 
weather,  and  blankets  are  always  needed  at  night.  The 
autumn  is  the  most  agreeable  season  of  the  year.  For 
the  purposes  of  the  farmer,  however,  the  summers  are  ad- 
mirable, for  crops  mature  rapidly,  and  little  rain  falls 
later  than  the  middle  of  June,  so  that  the  grain  is  har- 
vested in  good  condition  and  threshed  in  the  fields,  where 
it  lies  in  stacks  until  it  is  hauled  to  market. 

In  Western  Washington  the  climate  is  so  moist  and 
mild  that  it  can  be  compared  to  nothing  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  of  the  American  continent,  and  finds  its  closest 
analogy  in  the  South  of  Ireland.  The  warm  vapor-laden 
winds  blow  against  the  high  cold  wall  of  the  Cascade 
Mountains,  and  the  moisture  they  carry  is  condensed  into 
rain.  In  winter  the  Japan  current  so  influences  the  tem- 
perature that  snow  rarely  lies  on  the  ground  longer  than 
a  day  or  two  The  winter  is  a  rainy  season.  It  begins 
late  in  October  and  ends  about  the  first  of  May.  During 
December,  January,  February  and  March,  it  rains  more 
or  less  about  two  days  in  three.  The  other  months  of  the 
rainy  season  are  characterized  by  occasional  showers,  the 


360 


A'ORTIfEJiX  PACIFIC  RArLROAD. 


midwinter  rains  being  intermittent  drizzles  rather  than  a 
steady  down-pouring.  People  go  about  without  umbrellas, 
and  insist  that  they  prefer  their  wet  season  to  the  cold 
winters  of  the  East.  The  summer  climate  is  perfect — 
bright,  clear,  warm  days,  not  too  hot  for  comfort  in  out- 
door life,  and  cool,  refreshing  nights. 

'  Even  from  this  brief  sketch  of  Washington  Territory 
the  reader  will  readily  conclude  that  here  are  the  mate- 
rial resources  for  the  building  of  a  rich  and  populous 
State.  The  area  of  Washington  is  about  one-half  larger 
than  that  of  Pennsylvania.  Its  length  from  east  to  west 
is  360  miles,  its  breadth  250  miles.  With  its  great  fertile 
interior  plains,  where  the  soil  contains  the  best  elements 
for  the  production  of  wheat,  its  immense  forests,  its  inex- 
haustible beds  of  coal,  its  beautiful  inland  sea  inviting  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  and  its  temperate  and  healthful 
climate,  its  development,  long  retarded  by  its  isolation, 
must  be  rapid  now  that  it  is  joined  to  the  railroad  system 
of  the  East  by  the  new  northern  transcontinental  line. 
Next  to  Dakota  it  contains  more  unoccupied  arable  land 
than  any  of  the  new  Territories  of  the  West.  Its  varied 
resources  and  its  advantages  for  commerce  point  to  a 
diversified  industry,  which  is  the  surest  reliance  for  per- 
manent prosperity.  In  many  re-^pects  it  resembles  Penn- 
sylvania, possessing,  like  that  rich  commonwealth,  coal, 
iron,  lumber,  and  excellent  agricultural  lands,  and  having 
ready  access  to  the  sea. 


11 


ither  than  a 
t  umbrellas, 
to  the  cold 
is  perfect — 
fort  in  out- 

in  Territory 
:  the  mate- 
d  populous 
-half  larger 
jast  to  west 
great  fertile 
St  elements 
ts,  its  inex- 
inviting  the 
d  healthful 
:s  isolation, 
•oad  system 
nental  line, 
arable  land 
Its  varied 
point  to  a 
ice  for  per- 
nbles  Penn- 
ealth,  coal, 
and  having 


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U 


CHAPTER  XL. 


OREGON. 


Oregon  not  a  New  Community — A  Large  Part  of  its  Surface  still  Unoccu- 
pied— Tire  Donation  Law — Heauty  and  Fertility  of  the  Willamette  Val- 
ley— An  Agricultural  Paradise — The  Umpqua  and  Rogue  River  Valleys 
— Character  of  the  Sea  Coast  Region — Coos  and  Vaquina  I!ays — Eastern 
Oregon — A  High,  Treeless,  Bunch-Cjrass  Plain — The  Lalce  Country  of 
Southern  Oregon — The  Umatilla  Wheat  Region — Grande  Rondc  and 
Wallowa  Valleys — Other  Arable  Valleys — Wool  Growing  and  Cattle 
Raising — Climatic  Peculiarities — Valley  of  the  Coluni])ia — Tiie  Salmon 
Fishing  and  Canning  Industries — Lumbering  and  Mining — Cliief  Towi.s 
— Oregon  Scenery. 

Oregon  is  not  a  new  community,  as  the  term  is  used 
in  the  West.  It  has  had  nearly  forty  years  of  growth 
since  it  began  to  attract  agricultural  settlement,  and 
would  therefore  rank  chronologically  with  Iowa  and  Wis- 
consin. Its  great  distance  from  the  older  portions  of  the 
country  has  retarded  its  development,  however,  and  it 
cannot  count  more  than  225,000  inhabitants  to-day. 
Only  a  small  part  of  its  surface  is  occupied.  The  best  land 
for  farming  cannot  now  be  had  by  homesteac'  claimants, 
for  the  rich  valleys  were  long  since  settled,  and  a  law  of 
Congress  called  the  Donation  Act,  passed  to  encourage 
emigrants  to  make  the  long  journey  across  the  continent, 
gave  large  holdings  to  individuals,  and  thus  operated  to 
prevent  dense  settlement.  Under  this  law  every  married 
man  could  take  up  a  claim  of  a  mile  square — ^just  four 
times  the  amount  of  land  allowed  to  homestead  and  pre- 
emption claimants  in  other  States  and  Territories.  These 
donation  claims  are  still  to  a  considerable  extent  in  first 
hands,  or  remain  undivided  in  the  hands  of  heirs  of  the  origi- 
nal settlers.  As  a  rule  but  a  small  part  of  each  is  cultivated. 


36:: 


XORTIIERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  Willamette  Valley,  in  which  is  found  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  good  arable  land  in  the  State,  would  support 
many  times  its  present  population ;  but  new  comers  who 
wish  to  till  its  rich  bottoms  and  uplands  must  persuade 
the  old  settlers  to  divide  their  farms  and  sell  the  acres 
they  make  no  use  of.  This  valley,  so  famous  for  its 
beauty  and  productiveness,  lies  between  the  Cascade 
Mountains  and  the  Coast  Range,  and  is  about  150  miles 
long  by  forty  wide.  Its  surface  is  undulating,  and  is  well 
watered  by  numerous  small  streams  fed  by  springs  and 
melting  snow  in  the  mountains.  The  soil  is  so  fertile  that 
after  a  field  of  wheat  is  harvested  a  second  crop  will 
spring  up  from  the  grain  dropped  by  the  ripe  ears,  and  if 
the  field  is  not  plowed,  this  "  volunteer  crop,"  as  it  is 
called,  will  often  yield  more  bushels  to  the  acre  than  the 
average  product  of  wheat  fields  in  the  Eastern  States.  A 
richer  valley,  or  a  fairer  one  to  look  upon,  can  nowhere  be 
found.  Flourishing  orchards  alternate  with  broad  fields 
of  grain  and  belts  of  woodland  and  pastures,  and  lofty 
mountains  frame  the  pleasant  picture  on  either  hand. 
The  products  of  the  valley  are  carried  to  market  at  Port- 
land by  four  lines  of  railroad  and  a  navigable  river,  and 
there  they  meet,  at  the  head  of  tide  water,  the  com- 
merce of  the  world.  A  fruitful  soil,  a  mild  climate,  lovely 
natural  scenery,  and  excellent  transportation  facilities 
reaching  the  sea  by  a  short  journey,  combine  to  make  the 
Willamette  Valley  a  veritable  paradise  for  farmers  if 
any  such  exists  on  earth.  If  there  is  any  drawback  it  is 
the  wet  winter,  which  has  given  the  name  of  "  web-feet  " 
to  the  inhabitants  of  Oregon  ;  but  the  people  who  have 
had  long  experience  of  the  climate  would  be  sorry  to  ex- 
change their  mild  and  rainy  winter  months  for  the  snow 
and  severe  cold  of  the  same  latitudes  in  the  East. 

We  have  spoken  first  of  the  Willamette  Valley  because 
it  is  the  heart  of  the  State.     For  a  long  time  it  included 


OREGON. 


363 


all  there  was  of  settled  Oregon.  It  made  Portland  a  city ; 
it  attracted  commerce  to  the  Columbia  River ;  it  colonized 
the  newer  portions  of  the  Pacific  Northwest.  At  its  head 
the  Coast  and  Cascade  Mountains  are  joined  by  low  cross 
ranges,  and  further  south  the  water-courses  run  directly 
to  the  sea,  making  open  valleys  at  first,  which  soon  narrow 
into  cafions.  The  first  of  these  is  the  Umpqua  River, 
along  whose  banks  there  is  some  good  grain  land  and 
much  hill  pasture.  Next  is  the  Rogue  River,  which 
makes  a  very  attractive  valley  about  thirty  miles  long  by 
twenty  wide,  enjoying  the  finest  climate  in  Oregon,  the 
rainy  season  being  short,  and  most  of  the  winter  weather 
resembling  that  of  the  south  of  France.  IJeyond  this  for- 
tunate valley  rise  the  Siskyou  Mountains,  which  form  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  State. 

The  seacoast  region  of  Oregon  has  a  width,  from  the 
summits  of  the  Coast  Mountains  to  the  Pacific,  of  about 
fifty  miles,  and  is  covered  with  forests  save  on  the  tidal 
flats  around  bays,  and  at  the  mouths  of  rivers,  and  on  a  few 
strips  of  prairie  close  to  streams.  Settlement  here  in- 
volves clearing,  and  the  country  is  still  nearly  all  a  virgin 
wilderness.  Cool  summers  and  a  great  deal  of  fog  and 
rain  in  the  winters,  are  the  characteristics  of  the  climate. 
The  settlers  raise  cattle,  make  butter  and  cheese,  do  a 
little  farming,  and  ship  some  lumber.  There  is  much  rich 
land  that  will  be  extensively  cleared  for  farms  in  the  next 
generation,  when  there  is  no  more  prairie  land  in  the 
United  States  to  be  had  for  the  taking.  Now  the  few  oc- 
cupants of  the  forest  regions  of  both  Oregon  and  Washing- 
ton are  content  with  small  fields  for  grain  and  potatoes  for 
their  own  use,  and  manage  to  live  comfortably  by  keep- 
ing stock  to  run  in  the  woods.  There  are  two  harbors  on 
the  Oregon  coast  besides  the  entrance  to  the  Columbia — 
Coos  Bay  and  Yaquina  Bay — but  both  are  too  shallow  to 
admit  large  vessels.     The  Government  is  now  endeavor- 


3^4 


.YOIiT//£JiX  PACIJ-JC  KAJLROAD. 


ing  to  improve  the  entrance  to  the  latter.  At  Coos  Bay 
there  are  mines  of  lignite  coal,  not  extensively  workc>l, 
but  making  small  shipments  to  San  Francisco. 

Eastern  Oregon,  under  which  term  is  included  all  of 
the  State  lying  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  differs 
widely  in  its  appearance  and  climate  from  the  rest  of  the 
State.  For  the  most  part  it  is  a  high-rolling,  bunch-grass 
country,  destitute  of  trees,  and  too  dry  for  cultivation. 
In  the  south,  near  the  Nevada  line,  there  are  immense 
areas  of  sage-brush  plains  and  considerable  stretches  of 
lava  and  alkali  deserts.  This  unattractive  region  is  re- 
lieved, however,  from  its  sameness  of  desolation  by  two 
groups  of  lakes,  which  lie  in  grassy  basins,  where  the 
business  of  stock-raising  supports  a  small  rural  popula- 
tion and  has  developed  a  few  little  towns.  Some  notable 
exceptions  must  be  made  to  this  general  description  of 
Eastern  Oregon  as  a  dry  and  dusty  plain,  covered  with  a 
scanty  vesture  of  bunch-grass,  and  producing  no  vege- 
table growth  better  than  the  despised  sage  brush.  The 
great  wheat  belt  of  Eastern  Washington  and  Northern 
Idaho,  sweeping  around  at  the  base  of  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains, laps  over  into  Oregon,  in  Umatilla  County,  for  a  dis- 
tance of  about  fifty  miles,  and  in  this,  its  extreme  west- 
ern portion,  has  the  same  fertility  and  beauty  which  mark 
its  whole  surface.  Then,  south  of  the  mountains  and 
inclosed  by  their  spurs,  lies  the  fine  agricultural  valley 
of  the  Grande  Ronde,  having  a  length  of  thirty  miles 
and  a  width  of  ten,  and  the  smaller  valley  of  Wallowa, 
which  is  too  high  for  general  farming  purposes,  but  is 
an  admirable  grazing  and  dairy  country.  Further  south, 
and  near  the  Idaho  line,  the  valleys  of  Burnt  River, 
Powder  River,  and  the  Owyhee  River  are  excellent  for 
grazing,  and  offer  considerable  areas  of  irrigable  land 
to  agricultural  settlement.  Of  similar  character  is  the 
long  valley  of  the  John  Day  River,  extending  almost 


OKEGOX. 


565 


Lt  Coos  Bay 
cly  workcvl, 
I. 

luded  all  of 
ains,  differs 
:  rest  of  the 
bunch-grass 
cultivation, 
re  immense 
stretches  of 
cgion  is  rc- 
tion  by  two 
where  the 
iral  popula- 
3mc  notable 
:scription  of 
ered  with  a 
g  no  vegc- 
rush.     The 
d  Northern 
Hue   Moun- 
:y,  for  a  dis- 
reme  west- 
vhich  mark 
ntains  and 
ural  valley 
hirty  miles 
f  Wallowa, 
)ses,  but  is 
ther  south, 
irnt   River, 
ccellcnt  for 
jable   land 
:ter   is  the 
ng   almost 


across  the  eastern  portion  of  the  State.  The  Dcs  Chutes 
River,  draining  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains, is  a  clear  rapid  stream,  and  its  valley  and  the  ad- 
jacent region  are  valuable  for  stock-raising.  Willow 
Creek,  another  tributary  of  the  Columbia,  has  also  a 
fertile  valley.  Apart  from  the  Umatilla  grain  belt  and 
the  valleys  named  above,  which  altogether  embrace 
scarcely  a  tenth  part  of  the  area  of  Eastern  Oregon,  this 
portion  of  the  State  cannot  be  said  to  be  adapted  for 
settlement  save  in  .a  sparse  and  straggling  way.  Very 
little  of  the  country  is  absolutely  Avorthless,  for  the  bunch- 
grass  rarely  fails  ;  but  a  great  many  acres  are  required 
for  pasture  for  each  animal,  and  there  must  be  water  for 
stock  ranges.  Wool-growing  and  cattle-raising  are  al- 
ready important  industries,  and  arc  capable  of  consider- 
able expansion,  and  more  and  more  farming  is  done  every 
year  along  the  streams;  but  the  population  of  the  entire 
region  can  never  be  at  all  dense. 

The  climate  of  this  region  is  colder  in  winter  and 
warmer  in  summer  than  that  of  the  Willamette  Valley. 
Very  little  rain  falls  between  the  first  of  June  and  the 
first  of  October.  In  the  winter  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
snow,  which,  however,  does  not  lie  long  on  the  ground, 
being  speedily  melted  by  the  warm  Chinook  winds. 
These  winds  break  off  the  cold  snaps  suddenly,  so  that 
it  is  not  usual  for  a  low  range  of  the  thermometer  to  last 
longer  than  three  or  four  days.  The  mean  temperature 
for  the  year  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Ohio,  and  the  chief  differences  between  the  Eastern 
Oregon  climate  and  that  of  those  States  arc  found  in  the 
dry  atmosphere,  the  scanty  summer  rain-fall,  and  the 
short  duration  of  cold  spells  in  winter. 

The  Columbia  River  forms  the  northern  boundary  of 
Oregon  for  three-fourths  of  the  State's  breadth.  The 
valley  of  this  magnificent  river  adds  very  little,  however, 


,  1: 


I        ,    V 


366 


A'ORT/IEKW  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


to  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  State.  Tiiere  is  only  a 
narrow  strip  of  level  land  between  the  v-iter  and  the  moun- 
tains, and  much  of  this  is  subject  to  an  annual  overflow. 
Here  and  there  space  is  found  for  a  few  farms,  but  the 
general  appearance  of  the  banks  is  that  of  a  wilderness 
of  forests  and  mountains  below  the  Cascade  Range,  and 
of  basaltic  cliffs  and  steep  and  lofty  grassy  liills  above  that 
range,  save  for  a  space  of  about  fifty  miles  above  Willow 
Creek,  where  level  plains  stretch  out  to  the  base  of  the 
Blue  Mountains.  The  river  and  its  shores  afford  other 
sources  of  wealth,  however,  than  those  of  the  farms  re- 
deemed from  the  dense  woods  on  the  bottoms,  or  perched 
on  shelves  at  the  feet  cf  huge  precipices  of  brown  ba- 
saltic rock.  Much  lumber  is  cut  from  the  forests  and 
sawed  at  mills  along  the  stream,  where  it  is  loaded  upon 
sea-going  ships.  The  swift  waters  yield  an  enormous 
catch  of  salmon.  The  firm,  rosy  flesh  of  this  finest  of  all 
the  food  fishes  is  canned,  and  finds  a  market  in  all  parts 
of  the  civilized  globe,  Oregon  shares  with  Washington 
in  the  profitable  industry  of  catching  and  canning  salmon, 
the  fishermen's  villages  and  the  canneries  being  estab- 
lished at  numerous  points  on  both  sides  of  the  Columbia, 
from  the  Lower  Cascades  to  its  mouth.  Astoria,  in  Or- 
egon, on  a  bay  just  inside  the  river's  mouth,  is  the  chief 
centre  of  the  business.  The  town  is  quaintly  built  out  over 
the  tide  from  the  foot  of  the  hills,  which  descend  in  steep 
slopes  to  the  bay.  There  as  not  room  enough  on  the  land 
for  the  town  as  it  grew  from  its  lowly  condition  of  an  Indian 
trading-post,  so  the  people  took  to  the  water,  putting 
their  houses  on  piles  and  building  bridges  for  their  streets. 
Under  dwellings,  stores  and  streets  can  be  heard  the 
wash  of  the  tidal  waves  against  the  piles.  Here  are  many 
of  the  principal  canneries,  and  here  live  most  of  the  fish- 
ermen who  go  out  to  the  bar  in  their  little  boats  for  the 
first  chance  at  the  salmon  as  they  come  into  the   river — 


OREGON. 


367 


crc  is  only  a 
d  the  moun- 
4al  overflow, 
tns,  but  the 
a  wilderness 
Ran^c,  and 
s  above  that 
)ove  Willow- 
base  of  the 
afford  other 
le  farms  re- 
i,  or  perched 
brown   ba- 
forests  and 
loaded  upon 
n   enormous 
finest  of  all 
in  all  parts 
Washington 
ing  salmon, 
)eing  estab- 
1  Columbia, 
oria,  in  Or- 
s  the  chief 
ilt  out  over 
nd  in  steep 
on  the  land 
fan  Indian 
er,   putting 
leir  streets, 
heard  the 
e  are  many 
of  the  fish- 
ats  for  the 
he   river — 


a  perilous  life,  often  cut  short  by  a  sudden  gale,  but  a 
fascinating  one,  because  of  the  varying  kick  and  the 
chances  of  a  heavy  catch.  The  fish  are  brought  to  the 
canneries,  where  they  are  cleaned,  cut  up,  and  packed  in 
tin  cans,  which  are  placed  in  boiling  water  long  enough 
to  cook  the  contents.  The  air-holes  in  the  cans  are  then 
soldered,  the  labels  put  on,  and  the  cans  packed  in  cases 
that  hold  four  dozen  each.  A  moderate  season's  catch  in 
the  Columbia  Rivv  is  300,000  cases  of  48  pounds  each, 
making  the  enormous  quantity  of  nearly  15,000,000  pounds 
offish.  In  spite  of  this  great  annual  raid  on  the  sahr.on 
of  the  Columbia  there  seems  no  falling  off  i;i  vhe  supply. 
Gill-net  fishing  is  carried  on  from  the  river's  mouth  for 
a  distance  of  about  fifty  miles,  and  furtht.  '  up  lliere  ar-:  a 
number  of  gigantic  wheels  sapported  on  platrijrn;^  built 
out  '"'  •  I  the  banks,  and  kept  in  motion  by  tl  ;-  force  of 
the  current,  which  scoop  up  the  fish  ana  Ia:id  them  in 
tanks.  Still  further  up,  between  the  Cascades  and  the 
Dalles,  the  Indians  fish  with  scoop  nets. 

The  precious  metals  play  an  important  part  in  the  ag- 
gregate of  Oregon's  resources.  In  the  southern  part  of 
the  State  a  good  deal  of  placer  mining,  by  both  hand- 
sluicing  and  hydraulic  apparatus,  is  carried  on,  and  there 
are  a  few  paying  quartz  ledges ;  and  there  is  another 
mining  district  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  State,  of 
which  Baker  City  is  the  business  centre.  The  industry 
has  long  passed  the  stage  of  exciting  discoveries,  "  stam- 
pedes,", and  wild  speculation,  and  has  become  a  steady- 
going  and  moderately  profitable  business. 

The  chief  town  of  Oregon,  Portland,  will  be  described 
in  the  ensuing  chapter.  Astoria,  the  sea-port  and  fish- 
ing mart,  ranks  in  population  with  Salem,  the  pretty 
capital,  in  the  Willamette  Valley,  each  having  about 
7,000  inhabitants.  Albany,  Corvallis,  McMinnville,  and 
Eugene  City,  are  important  trading  towns  in  the  same 


■■■  * 
■  I 


368 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


valley.  Oregon  City  is  a  milling  village,  using  the  water- 
power  of  the  falls  of  the  Willamette.  Roseburg  is  the 
central  town  of  the  Umpqua  Valley,  and  Jacksonville 
and  Ashland  divide  the  trade  of  the  Rogue  River  Val- 
ley. East  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  the  principal  town 
is  the  Dalles,  on  the  Columbia.  Smaller  places  of  local 
consequence  are  Pendleton,  Union,  and  Baker  City. 

There  are  few  points  of  the  American  continent  that 
can  rival  Oregon  for  grand  and  imposing  scenery.  The 
lofty  peak  of  Mount  Hood,  like  a  magnified  Egyptian 
pyramid,  sheeted  in  snow,  and  set  upon  an  immense 
green  wall,  is  the  most  beautiful  mountain  of  the  whole 
Pacific  coast,  if  symmetry  of  form  be  regarded  as  the 
first  element  in  beauty,  and  in  height  and  massiveness 
it  is  only  surpassed  by  Mount  Tacoma.  The  great  Sugar 
Loaf  of  Mount  St.  Helens,  though  on  the  Washington 
side  of  the  Columbia,  belongs  to  the  scenery  of  Oregon 
as  well  as  to  that  of  the  neighboring  Territory,  and  so 
docs  Mount  Adams.  All  three  of  these  glittering  peaks, 
as  well  as  the  summit  of  Tacoma,  far  in  the  north,  and  of 
Jefferson  on  the  southern  horizon,  can  be  seen  from  the 
hills  back  of  Portland.  The  lower  peaks  and  ranges  of 
the  Coast  and  Cascade  Mountains,  and  of  the  Calapooia 
and  Siskyon  Mountains  in  Southern  Oregon,  present  to 
the  eye  a  thousand  pleasing  outlines. 

In  the  grandeur  of  its  shores  the  Columbia  ranks  first 
of  American  rivers.  Its  current  is  as  impetuous  as  that 
of  the  Mississippi,  its  mountain  walls  and  palisades  far 
loftier  than  those  of  the  Hudson  ;  cataracts  like  those  of 
the  Yosemite  Valley  dash  over  its  basaltic  cliffs.  At  the 
Dalles  it  buries  itself  in  i  profound  crevice  whose  depth 
has  never  been  fathomed,  showing  of  its  surface  only  as 
much  as  can  be  compassed  by  a  stone's  throw  ;  at  Astoria 
it  becomes  a  broad  tidal  estuary,  whose  farther  shores  lie 
in  dim  distance ;  at  the  Cascades  it  is  a  foaming,  head- 


OREGON. 


369 


the  vvater- 
urg  is  the 
icksonville 
River  Val- 
cipal  town 
es  of  local 
City. 

tinent  that 
lery.     The 

Egyptian 
1    immense 

the  whole 
dccl  as  the 
nassiveness 
jreat  Sugar 
Vashington 

of  Oregon 
3ry,  and  so 
ring  peaks, 
jrth,  and  of 
n  from  the 
d  ranges  of 

Calapooia 

present  to 


long  torrent ;  at  the  mouth  of  the  Willamette  it  is  a 
placid  lake,  encircling  many  green  islands.  The  Willa- 
mette has  an  emerald  green  current,  and  flows  between 
gentle  slopes,  through  farms  and  woodland,  past  orchards 
and  pretty  villages — a  placid  and  idyllic  stream,  save 
where  it  leaps  down  forty  feet  in  one  bound  at  its  falls, 
and  makes  a  small  Niagara  of  white  foam  and  rainbow- 
tinted  spray.  Indeed,  to  briefly  catalogue  half  the  special 
scenic  features  of  Oregon  would  demand  a  great  deal  more 
space  than  this  chapter  affords.  Enough  to  say  that  the 
State  has  all  of  the  grandeur  and  loveliness  in  landscapes 
that  mountains,  rivers,  valleys,  waterfalls,  lakes,  and  the 
ocean  can  give,  and  that  tourists  will  find  within  its 
bounds,  and  those  of  its  neighbor,  Washington,  a  combina- 
tion of  Switzerland  and  Maine,  of  Italy  and  Norway. 
24 


ranks  first 
ous  as  that 
ilisades  far 
ve  those  of 

s.     At  the 

lose  depth 
ice  only  as 

at  Astoria 
r  shores  lie 
ning,  head- 


CHAPTER  XLI. 


PORTLAND  AND  THE  PUGET  SOUND  PORTS. 

The  Metropolis  of  the  Pacific  Northwest — Portland's  Advantageous  Loca- 
tion— Its  Enterprise  in  Establishing  Transportation  Lines — The  Rail- 
way System  Centring  in  Portland — A  Well-built,  Rich  and  Beautiful 
City — Its  Great  Staple  Export  of  Wheat — The  Columbia  River  Bar — 
Predictions  of  a  Greater  City  on  Puget  Sound — Tacoma  the  Legal  Ter- 
minus of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad — Its  Tributary  Coal-Fields  and 
l-uniber  Interests — Wheat  Shipments  from  Eastern  Wasliington — Seat- 
tle's Activity  and  Growth — Its  Important  Trade  with  the  Smaller 
Towns  on  I'uget  Sound. 

So  far  ahead  is  Portland  in  population  and  business 
of  all  other  towns  in  Oregon  or  Washington,  that  it 
claims,  with  good  reason,  the  title  of  metropolis  of  the 
Pacific  Northwest.  In  its  early  development  it  was 
wholly  the  product  of  the  Willamette  Valley.  The 
town  sprang  up  at  the  point  where  the  grain-laden  ox- 
wagons  from  the  fertile  valley  met  the  clipper  ship.  This 
was  not  on  the  great  river  of  the  region,  the  Columbia,  be- 
cause ships  could  get  nearest  to  the  wheat-fields  by  turn- 
ing out  of  that  stream  into  the  Willamette  and  following 
its  placid  tributary  channel  a  few  miles.  For  many  years 
after  the  first  settlement,  the  Willamette  Valley  was  all 
there  was  of  Oregon  save  forests  and  fur-trading  stations. 
That  valley  offered  open  prairies  to  the  plow,  and  thither 
the  pioneers,  crossing  the  arid  plains  by  a  journey  longer 
in  time  than  is  now  required  to  sail  around  the  world, 
made  their  homes.  When  tjiey  had  a  surplus  of  grain 
to  sell,  they  hauled  it  down  to  deep  water  and  exchanged 
it  for  clothing  and  implements.  So  Portland  arose, 
being  both  seaport  and  inland  town — for  it  is  nearly  a 


KJ 


''■frncm'^. 


>RTS. 

ntageous  Loca- 
es— The  Rail- 
and  Beautiful 
a  River  Bar— 
he  Legal  Ter- 
:oal-Fiekls  and 
ihington — Seat- 
.h   the   Smaller 


id   business 
ton,  that    it 
polis  of  the 
t    it    was 
lley.      The 
in-laden  ox- 
ship.     This 
lumbia,  be- 
Ids  by  turn- 
d  following 
many  years 
lley  was  all 
ng  stations, 
and  thither 
rney  longer 
the  world, 
us  of  grain 
exchanged 
lland   arose, 
is  nearly  a 


z 
O 

o 
O 

Q 

•< 


o 

a. 


PORTLAND  AND    THE  PUGET    SOUND  PORTS. 


371 


hundred  miles  from  the  ocean,  yet  great  ocean  steamers 
and  deep  square-rigged  ships  lie  at  its  wharves. 

In  course  of  time  the  important  discovery  was  made 
that  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  lay  a  second  grain 
region.  An  experiment  in  raising  wheat  for  the  needs 
of  the  military  post  at  Walla  Walla  was  so  successful 
that  farmers  began  to  go  into  the  country  near  the 
post,  and  in  a  few  years  they,  too,  had  a  surplus  to 
send  to  the  world's  markets.  They  were  far  removed 
from  the  settlements  in  the  Willamette  Valley,  and  the 
transportation  system  of  steamboats  on  the  Willamette 
River,  above  and  below  its  falls,  was  of  no  use  to  them. 
Geographically  considered,  this  new  agricultural  district 
was  not  naturally  tributary  to  Portland.  A  town  to  send 
its  grain  to  sea  and  furnish  it  with  supplies  was  expected 
to  grow  up  on  the  Columbia.  Some  thought  it  would  be 
at  Vancouver,  just  above  the  mouth  of  the  Willamette ; 
some  at  St.  Helen's,  further  down ;  some  at  Astoria, 
where  the  Columbia  meets  the  sea.  The  enterprise  of 
Portland,  however,  was  thrown  into  the  scale  and  out- 
weighed all  other  influences.  Her  merchants  put  steam- 
boats upon  the  Columbia,  built  railroads  around  the  two 
obstacles  to  its  navigation  at  the  Cascades  and  the 
Dalles,  and  thus  brought  the  trade  of  the  new  wheat  region 
to  their  own  wharves  and  warehouses,  forcing  it  to  turn 
aside  from  its  straight  path  to  the  sea  to  pay  them  trib- 
ute. When  this  was  done,  the  supremacy  of  the  city 
was  assured,  and  its  growth  has  since  kept  steady  pace 
with  the  development  of  the  two  rich  agricultural  sec- 
tions which  sustain  its  commerce.  Railroads  have  been 
built  on  both  sides  of  the  Willamette  Valley,  and  the 
basin  of  the  Upper  Columbia  is  also  reached  by  the  loco- 
motive, so  that  the  costly  transfer  of  freight  around  the 
Dalles  and  the  Cascades  is  no  longer  made.  First  a  centre 
of  sea  and  river  navigation,  Portland  has  become  also  a 


372 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


railroad  centre.  The  map  printed  with  this  chapter  will 
show  how  extensive  is  its  railway  system.  The  road  en- 
tering it  from  the  east  is  a  link  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
main  line  which  leads  directly  to  St.  Paul,  and  there  con- 
nects with  lines  to  all  the  cities  of  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
the  Mississippi  Valley.  This  line  also  sends  out  branches 
which  reach  the  farming,  grazing  and  mining  regions 
of  Oregon  and  Washington  lying  between  the  Cascade 
Range  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  South  from  Portland 
two  roads  run  up  the  Willamette  Valley  to  form  a 
junction,  and  thence  to  continue  southward  as  a  single 
line  to  the  California  boundary,  where  they  are  soon 
to  be  met  by  a  branch  of  the  Central  Pacific,  giving 
unbroken  rail  communication  between  Portland  and  San 
PVancisco.  There  are  also  two  narrow-gauge  railroads, 
one  not  shown  on  the  map,  which  connect  with  the  main 
lines  in  the  valley,  and  also  with  steamboats  upon  the 
Willamette  River,  affording  convenient  local  outlets  for 
grain  shipments.  West  of  Portland,  the  Northern  Pacific 
main  line  runs  down  the  Columbia  forty  miles,  and  then 
turns  north  to  reach  the  ports  of  Puget  Sound. 

The  system  of  water  transportation  is  equally  well 
developed.  Large  ocean  steamships,  equipped  with  all 
the  appliances  of  comfort  and  safety  in  use  on  the  vessels 
plying  between  New  York  and  European  ports,  make  tri- 
weekly trips  between  Portland  and  San  Francisco.  These 
vessels  are  owned  by  the  Pacific  Coast  Steamship  Com- 
pany and  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company. 
To  the  latter  corporation  belongs  the  fleet  of  river  steam- 
boats running  between  Portland  and  the  towns  along  the 
Columbia  and  Willamette  rivers.  The  steamboats  and 
barges  on  the  Upper  Columbia  and  the  Snake  River  and 
numerous  steam  craft  on  Puget  Sound  are  also  the 
property  of  this  enterprising  Oregon  corporation. 

Thus  admirably  supplied  with  transportation  facilities. 


I 

If 


chapter  will 
he  road  en- 
hern  Pacific 
1  there  con- 
c  coast  and 
ut  branches 
ing  regions 
he  Cascade 
im  Portland 

to  form  a 
as  a  single 
:y  are  soon 
icific,  giving 
md  and  San 
je  railroads, 
ith  the  main 
its  upon  the 
I  outlets  for 

hern  Pacific 
es,  and  then 
1. 

qually  well 
ed  with  all 
I  the  vessels 

s,  make  tri- 
isco.  These 
uship  Com- 

1  Company. 

iver  steam- 

s  along  the 

nboats  and 
River  and 

e    also   the 

ion, 

>n  facilities. 


PORTLAND  AND    THE  PUGET  SOUND  PORTS. 


373 


both  by  rail  and  vater,  the  growth  and  commercial  im- 
portance of  the  Oregon  metropolis  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  Visitors  from  fhc  East  are  surprised,  however,  that 
at  such  a  distance  from  older  cities,  and  in  such  a 
condition  of  complete  isolation  from  the  railway  system 
of  the  country,  as  it  was  until  the  completion  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  it  was  able  to  adopt  the  ways  and 
enjoy  the  refinements  and  comforts  of  a  long-established 
civilization.  There  is  nothing  crude  or  new  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  place,  and  no  feature  of  agreeable  town 
life  is  wanting.  The  business  structures  are  solid  and 
handsome  ;  the  shops  are  filled  with  costly  wares  ;  there 
are  numerous  churches,  a  theatre,  a  club,  a  library ;  the 
largest  buildings  are  the  public  school  houses  ;  the  streets 
are  shaded  with  maples ;  many  of  the  dwellings  are  re- 
markable for  their  size  and  cost,  and  still  more  for  their 
attractive  lawns  and  gardens.  In  summer  it  is  a  town  of 
verdure  and  bloom. 

With  its  suburbs  of  East  Portland  and  Albina,  the  place 
has  now  30,000  inhabitants.  In  striking  contrast  with  its 
busy  streets,  its  wharves,  steamboats,  railway  trains,  and 
tall  ships,  is  the  near  forest,  which  hugs  it  closely  on  all 
sides.  One  can  stand  in  the  primeval  woods  and  look 
down  on  all  this  bustling  activity  of  trade  and  pleasure. 
Here  are  the  tall  pines  and  the  dark  thicket — there  the 
masts,  the  smoking  chimneys,  the  dusty  streets,  ."iid  the 
pleasant  gardens.  Only  as  the  tG-»vn  advances  does  the 
forest  recede.  This  curious  feature  of  Portland  is  owing 
to  its  situation  among  the  rugged  timber-clothed  hills 
that  skirt  the  Columbia.  The  Willamette  breaks  through 
them,  but  its  broad,  open  valley  does  not  reach  to  its 
confluence  with  the  larger  river.  The  fields  which  first 
created  the  town  begin  many  miles  away.  In  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  city  the  wilderness  has  hardly  been 
disturbed. 


!!!i 


374 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


Portland's  chief  article  of  export  is  wheat,  of  which  it 
ships  about  10,000,000  bushels  annually,  mainly  to  Liver- 
pool. The  barometer  of  its  prosperity  rises  and  falls  with 
the  wheat  crop.  When  the  crop  is  large  times  are  good. 
There  is  never  a  failure  of  the  crop,  but  the  difference 
between  a  moderate  yield  and  a  heavy  one  is  an  affair  of 
no  small  consequence  in  its  effect  on  the  yearly  income 
of  merchants  and  transportation  lines.  Next  to  wheat, 
in  the  trade  reports,  comes  salmon,  of  which  about  300,- 
000  cases  are  canned  every  year  upon  the  Columbia. 
Lumber,  wool,  and  hides  are  the  other  leading  articles 
in  the  export  tables.  So  far  as  easy  access  to  the  sea  is 
concerned,  the  city  is  by  no  means  as  favorably  situated 
as  the  ports  on  Puget  Sound.  The  bar  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  is  an  obstacle  to  navigation,  though 
not  a  very  serious  one,  for  the  large  steamers  running 
to  San  Francisco  cross  it  regularly,  and  ships  are  towed 
over  it  every  day.  The  few  wrecks  that  have  occurred 
upon  it  have,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  been  occasioned 
by  carelessness.  Still,  the  shifting  channel  must  be  care- 
fully watched,  and  vessels  must  wait  for  high  tide  to  get 
across  the  bar.  At  low  stages  of  water  in  the  river,  troub- 
lesome sand  bars  are  revealed  between  Portland  and  the 
sea,  and  ships  take  a  part  of  their  cargoes  from  lighters 
towed  down  to  Astoria.  From  these  facts  it  is  often 
argued  that  a  great  city  will  eventually  grow  up  on  the 
deep  waters  of  Puget  Sound,  to  which  the  largest  ships 
can  sail,  unimpeded,  straight  in  from  the  sea,  and  that  a 
riv-1  will  soon  arise  in  that  quarter  to  contest  Portland's 
commercial  supremacy  in  the  Pacific  settlement.  Thus 
far  no  such  rival  has  shown  itself,  and  the  probability  of 
its  appearance  need  not  be  discussed  here.  The  Sound 
ports  are  ambitious  towns  just  emerging  from  the  village 
state,  and  no  comparisons  can  justly  be  drawn  between 
them  and  the  city  to  which  they  are  all  in  a  measure 
tributary. 


of  which  it 
ily  to  Liver- 
nd  falls  with 
es  are  good, 
e  difference 
5  an  affair  of 
;arly  income 
ct  to  wheat, 

about  300,- 
;  Columbia. 
Jing  articles 
to  the  sea  is 
bly  situated 

the  mouth 
ion,  though 
ers  running 
IS  are  towed 
ve  occurred 
I  occasioned 
lust  be  care- 
i  tide  to  get 
river,  troub- 
ind  and  the 
om  lighters 

it  is  often 
'■  up  on  the 
irgest  ships 
.,  and  that  a 
t  Portland's 
lent.  Thus 
•obability  of 

The  Sound 
I  the  village 
ivn  between 

a  measure 


I'l 


PUGET  SOUND  PORTS  AND  THEIR  RAILWAY  CONNECTIONS. 


PORTLAND  AND    THE  PUUET  SOUND  PORTS. 


375 


fl 

\     H) 

J, 

7?      V 

^ 

Of  these  towns,  only  the  two  which  serve  as  seaports 
for  the  Northern  Pacific  system  need  be  described  here. 
Their  relations  to  the  railroad  and  to  each  other  are 
shown  by  the  accompanyincj  map.  Tacoma  is  the  legal 
terminus  of  both  the  main  line  and  the  Cascade  Branch, 
but  an  extension  has  been  built  to  Seattle,  divergin^^  from 
the  Cascade  Branch  ten  miles  east  of  Tacoma.  By  this 
line  the  distance  between  the  two  towns  is  forty  miles  ; 
by  water  it  is  only  twenty-seven.  Tacoma  is  purely  the 
creation  of  the  railroad.  It  was  only  a  saw-mill  hamlet 
before  the  road  came,  and  after  the  line  was  opened  from 
Kalama  on  the  Columbia  its  growth  was  very  slow.  In- 
deed, its  advance  to  the  position  of  an  important  town 
only  dates  from  1882,  when  it  received  a  great  stimulus 
from  the  certainty  that  it  had  only  a  year  to  wait  for  the 
connection  of  the  Northern  Pacific  track  in  Montana, 
which  would  unite  the  Sound  with  the  Atlantic  coast  by 
unbroken  rail  connection.  Tacoma  has  some  notable 
advantages.  The  largest  ships  and  steamers  come  to  its 
wharves.  The  town  site  covers  three  benches  of  a  high 
plateau  that  look  out  eastward  over  Commencement  Bay 
and  the  valley  of  the  Puyallup  to  the  Cascade  Mountains 
and  the  magnificent  snow  peak  of  Mount  Tacoma,  grand- 
est of  all  American  mountains  save  Mount  St.  Elias,  in 
Alaska.  The  coal  fields  at  the  base  of  the  mountains, 
now  largely  worked,  are  tributary  to  the  town,  and  so  is 
the  rich  valley  of  the  Puyallup  and  numerous  smaller  val- 
leys and  prairies  hidden  in  the  midst  of  the  dense  fir 
forests  that  envelop  the  shores  of  the  Sound.  It  has  a 
considerable  trade  in  lumber  and  coal,  and  confidently 
awaits  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  cheap  wheat  trans- 
portation, in  the  belief  that  much  of  the  grain  of  Oregon 
and  Eastern  Washington  will  seek  the  deep  water  of  the 
Sound  with  the  opening,  this  year,  of  unbroken  rail  com- 
m'mication,  and  that,  as  the  point  where  the  railroad  first 


37^ 


NORTHERLY  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


meets  the  ships  on  the  Sound,  it  will  command  this  im- 
portant commerce.  Wc  may  say  further  of  Tacoma  that 
it  has  already  made  some  promising  efforts  at  manufact- 
uring, and  that  the  beauty  and  healthfulncss  of  its  situ- 
ation will  soon  attract  tourists  and  summer  residents.  In 
a  few  years  the  great  glaciers  and  snowfields  of  Mount 
Tacoma  will  be  visited  by  thousands  of  travelers,  who 
will  find  all  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  high  Alps. 
The  town  will  profit  largely  by  this  tide  of  travel,  to 
which  it  must  serve  as  base  and  rallying  point. 

At  this  time  (in  the  summer  of  1883)  the  population  of 
Tacoma  is  about  4,000  souls.  That  of  its  neighbor, 
Seattle,  is  probably  not  less  than  7,000.  Seattle  is  much 
the  older  town.  It  hoped  to  be  the  terminus  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  and,  disappointed  in  this,  showed  an 
enterprising  spirit  in  running  little  steamers  to  the  saw- 
mills up  and  down  the  Sound,  and  up  the  rivers  where 
there  are  agricultural  valleys.  Thus  the  town  became  a 
centre  of  trade  and  a  distributing  point  for  supplies,  and 
managed  to  keep  alicad  of  all  rivals.  It  was  greatly 
helped  by  the  opening  of  the  Newcastle  coal  field, 
about  twenty  miles  distant ;  the  building  of  a  railroad  to 
the  mines ;  and  of  wharves  on  its  water  front  for  shipping 
the  coal.  Mines,  railroad,  wharves,  and  the  handsome 
steam  colliers  that  carry  the  coal  to  San  Francisco,  are  all 
the  property  of  the  Oregon  Improvement  Company.  Be- 
sides the  railroad  to  Taconia,  mentioned  in  a  preceding 
paragraph,  Seattle  has  lately  secured,  by  the  subscription 
of  $150,000  on  the  part  of  her  citizens,  the  early  building 
of  a  line  by  way  of  the  coal  fields  of  Green  River  to  a  con- 
nection with  the  Cascade  Branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific. 
The  town  is  built  on  the  steep  slopes  of  hills  that  half  in- 
close a  pretty  bay  into  which  flows  the  Dwamish  River, 
and  the  little  level  ground  occupied  by  the  business  streets 
was  obtained  at  much  labor  by  cutting  down  the  hills  and 


PORTLAND  AXD    THE  PUGET  SOUXD  PORTS. 


m 


nd  this  im- 
acoma  that 
I  man u  fact- 
or its  situ- 
itlcnts.  In 
i  of  Mount 
velcrs,  who 
high  Alps, 
f  travel,  to 

ipulation  of 

j   neighbor, 

tic  is  much 

nus  of  the 

showed   an 

:o  the  saw- 

ivers  where 

1  became  a 

ipplies,  and 

as   greatly 

coal    field, 

railroad  to 

or  shipping 

handsome 

isco,  are  all 

pany.     Be- 

preceding 

ubscription 

ly  building 

:r  to  a  con. 

ern  Pacific. 

lat  half  in- 

lish  River, 

ess  streets 

le  hills  and 


filling  out  into  the  bay.  In  spite  of  the  precipitous  slopes, 
howevc  an  orderly  street  system  has  been  obtained,  and 
the  town  profits  somewhat  even  by  its  disadvantage  of 
being  tipped  up  at  a  sharp  angle,  by  showing  itself  at  one 
view  to  all  who  approach  by  water,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
magnificent  outlook,  from  its  terrace-like  streets,  over 
forests,  bays  and  Sound  to  the  rugged  crests  of  the  Olym- 
pic Mountains.  Three  miles  distant  is  Lake  Washington  ; 
a  fine  body  of  fresh  water  over  twenty  miles  long.  It  lies 
so  close  to  the  Sound  that  the  idea  of  connecting  it  with 
tide-water  by  a  canal  with  locks  for  water-power  as  well 
as  transportation,  and  for  a  repair  station  in  fresh  water 
for  sh i(  s,  has  long  been  a  favorite  one,  and  has  lately 
ripened  into  a  business  project.  Seattle  saws  and  manu- 
factures lumber,  repairs  machinery,  ships  coal,  carries  on 
considerable  wholesale  trade,  and  is  regarded  by  its  citi- 
zens as  destined  to  be  the  chief  city  of  the  North  Pacific 
coast.  Its  claim  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  future  me- 
tropolis of  Puget  Sound  is  vigorously  disputed  by  Tacoma, 
and  both  are  somewhat  troubled  by  the  remote  contin- 
gency that  a  greater  than  either  may  arise  at  some  point  far 
down  the  Sound,  facing  out  upon  the  Strait  of  Juan  de 
Fuca,  and  directly  accessible  to  ships  coming  in  under  sail 
from  the  ocean,  without  the  help  of  steam  tugs.  As  yet, 
however,  there  is  not  even  a  beginning  of  a  commercial 
town  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Lower  Sound,  although 
the  locality  was  pointed  out  by  the  distinguished  chief 
engineer,  VV.  Milnor  Roberts,  fourteen  years  ago,  as  pecu- 
liarly adapted  for  the  site  of  a  great  city. 


|.^'. 


m 


PART   III 


DESCRIPTION    OF    THE    MAIN    LINE. 

WITH  INCIDENTAL  INFORMATION  REGARDING 
ENGINEERING  AND  CONSTRUCTION. 


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' — 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

THE   MINNESOTA,   WISCONSIN   AND    ST.    PAUL   DIVISIONS. 

The  East  Minnesota  Division — First  Breaking  of  Ground  on  the  Northern 
Pacific  Line — A  Celebralion  of  tlie  Event — Wheeling  the  First  Load  of 
Earth — Completion  of  the  Road  to  Brainerd  in  1870 — Character  of  the 
Country  Traversed — The  St.  Paul  Division — The  Wisconsin  Division — 
The  Brainerd  Shops — The  West  Minnesota  Division — Difficulties  and 
Cost  of  Construciion — The  Red  River  Crossing. 

The  East  Minnesota  Division  of  the  Nortliern  Pacific 
Railroad  extends  from  Duluth,  at  the  head  of  Lake  Su- 
perior, to  Brainerd,  where  it  joins  the  St.  Paul  Division ; 
the  continuation  of  both  lines  westward  being  known  as 
the  West  Minnesota  Division.  Its  length  is  1 14  miles. 
On  this  division  occurred  the  first  breaking  of  ground  on 
the  15th  of  February,  1870.  In  the  midst  of  the  rigors 
of  a  northern  winter,  the  scanty  population  of  the  two 
villages  of  Duluth  and  Superior  City,  at  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior,  was  notified  by  General  Ira  Spaulding, 
the  engineer  in  charge,  that  ground  would  be  broken 
next  day  at  the  Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis  River,  on  the 
new  Transcontinental  Railroad.  The  point  chosen  was 
about  a  mile  west  of  the  present  town  of  Northern 
Pacific  Junction,  where  the  St.  Paul  and  Duluth  Rail- 
road joins  the  Northern  Pacific.  The  news  created  much 
enthusiasm  in  the  two  hamlets  by  the  frozen  lake,  and  it 
was  determined  that  such  an  important  event  should  not 
take  place  without  being  worthily  celebrated  ;  so  a  large 
number  of  people  drove  out  through  the  woods  in  sleighs, 
sleeping  on  the  floor  of  a  log-house  at  the  Dalles,  and 
appearing  on  the  ground  early  next  morning.  There 
they  found  General  Spaulding  and  W.  H.  Owen,  of  the 


■m. 


382 


NORTJIERX    J\ICI1''1C  RAILROAD. 


Northern  Pacific  Engineer  Corps;  W.  VV.  Ilungcrford  and 
two  assistants,  of  the  Engineer  Corps  of  the  Lake  Supe- 
rior and  Mississif)pi  Railroad,  and  a  few  workmen.  In 
all,  including  the  delegations  from  Superior,  Duluth,  and 
Fond  du  Lac,  a  village  a  few  miles  west  of  Superior, 
there  were  about  seventy-five  persons  present.  A  fire  of 
logs  had  been  built  the  day  before  to  melt  the  snow  and 
thaw  out  the  frozen  earth.  At  noon  the  assemblage 
was  called  to  order. 

General  Spaulding  suggested  that  a  committee  of  two 
citizens,  one  from  Minnesota  and  one  from  Wisconsin,  be 
appointed  "  to  fill  and  deliver  the  first  Avheclbarrow  of 
earth  handled  in  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad."  The  president  appointed  J.  B.  Culver  and 
Hiram  Hayes,  as  the  committee.  Mr.  Culver  took  a  pick 
and  shovel  and  filled  the  wheelbarrow,  and  Mr.  Hayes 
wheeled  the  load  a  few  steps  and  dumped  it,  amid  con- 
tinued cheering.  The  assemblage  dispersed  with  cheer 
upon  cheer  for  the  friends,  officers,  and  engineers  of  the 
Northern  Pacific. 

A  large  force  was  put  to  work  clearing  and  grading  in 
the  following  spring,  and  the  line  was  opened  to  Brainerd 
in  December  of  the  same  year.  The  Lake  Superior  and 
Mississippi  Railroad  was  opened  through  from  St.  Paul 
to  Lake  Superior  in  the  summer  of  1870,  and  became 
the  supply  line  for  the  transportation  of  construction 
materials  for  the  Northern  Pacific.  The  purchase  of  a 
half  interest  in  its  track  east  of  the  junction  fixed  Du- 
luth as  the  lake  terminus  of  the  Northern  Pacific  line,  and 
caused  the  remote  and  almost  unknown  hamlet  bearing 
that  name  to  develop,  with  great  rapidity,  into  an  active 
town.  From  Duluth  the  road  skirts  the  Bay  of  Superior 
and  the  St.  Louis  River,  which,  near  its  mouth,  widens 
out  and  is  called  Spirit  Lake,  for  about  twenty  miles, 
much  of  the  way  in  sight  of  the  Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis — 


THE  MINNESOTA   AND    WI SCON  SIX  DIVISIONS. 


383 


a  continuous  rapid  ten  miles  long,  hemmed  in  in  a  wild, 
rocky  gorge.  There  was  heavy  work  all  the  way  to 
the  junction,  cutting  and  filling  in  the  precipitous  hill 
sides  and  bridging  the  numerous  ravines  which  come 
down  to  the  river's  edge.  Five  long  trestles  had  to  be 
erected,  the  highest  115  feet,  besides  a  bridge  across  the 
river.  The  maximum  grade  on  this  section  is  seventy- 
four  feet  to  the  mile,  and  for  eight  miles  west  of  Fond 
du  Lac  the  average  ascent  is  sixty-six  feet  to  the 
mile ;  nearly  the  entire  elevation  from  Lake  Superior  to 
the  plateau  which  serves  as  a  water-shed  between  its 
tributaries  and  those  of  the  Mississippi  having  to  be  sur- 
mounted in  that  distance.  West  of  the  junction  there  is 
no  grade  heavier  than  fifty  feet  to  the  mile.  The  face  of 
the  country  is  slightly  undulating,  but  there  are  no  hills 
and  no  deep  depressions.  Numerous  small  lakes  arc  seen 
from  the  track.  A  forest  growth  of  pine,  spruce,  tama- 
rack and  birch  covers  the  whole  region,  and  there  is  much 
swampy  ground.  In  crossing  the  swamps,  which  ap- 
pear to  cover  the  beds  of  old  lakes,  the  engineers  had  a 
hard  task  to  find  a  bottom  sufficiently  solid  to  support 
the  road  bed.  The  filling  of  one  day  would  disappear 
during  the  night.  In  some  places  piles  liad  to  be  used, 
and  in  the  worst  spot  two  tiers  of  piles  were  driven,  one 
on  top  of  another,  before  the  hard  clay  was  reached.  For 
a  short  distance  the  road  runs  along  the  actual  water-shed 
between  Lake  Superior  and  the  ^lississippi,  and  at  Crom- 
well, 45  miles  from  Duluth,  it  crosses  a  small  lake  which 
sends  a  part  of  its  overflow  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  a 
part  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

At  Brainerd  are  established  the  most  extensive  shops 
to  be  found  on  the  Northern  Pacific  road.  These  have 
been  greatly  enlarged  and  improved  by  the  construction 
of  handsome  and  substantial  buildings  during  the  pres- 
ent administration  of  the  Company's  affairs,  and  now 


-II  I' 


384 


XOJiTI/EK.V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


fairly  rank  among  the  very  best  railway  shops  in  the 
country.  The  principal  structures  consist  of  a  machine 
shop,  120  by  250  feet  ;  a  blacksmith  shop,  80  by  195 
feet,  with  52  fires ;  a  round  house,  with  44  stalls  for 
locomotives ;  a  store  room  and  office  buildinj^,  40  by  300 
feet ;  a  laboratory,  20  by  30  feet  ;  and  an  oil  building,  with 
a  storage  capacity  of  110,000  gallons.  These  are  all  of 
yellow  brick,  with  slate  or  slieet-iron  roofs.  For  building 
and  repairing  cars,  the  wooden  buildings  of  the  old  shops 
an;  temporarily  used.  In  the  Brainerd  shops  722  men 
arc  employed  in  the  locomotive  department,  and  344  in 
the  car  department.  Three  divisions  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  terminate  at  Brainerd,  and  the  operating  depart- 
ment of  all  of  the  main  line  and  branches  in  the  State  of 
Minnesota  has  its  headquarters  here.  Here,  also,  are  the 
headquarters  of  the  engineer's  department  for  the  entire 
road. 

From  Brainerd  to  Fargo,  a  distance  of  138^^  miles,  ex- 
tends the  West  Minnesota  Division.  This  portion  of  the 
main  line  was  definitely  located  by  the  engineers  during 
the  summer  of  1870,  while  construction  was  proceeding 
on  the  East  Minnesota  Division.  Some  minor  changes 
were  made  in  the  location  by  order  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  in  January,  1 871,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
chief  engineer,  and  the  contract  for  the  work  was  let  to  the 
Northwestern  Construction  Company.  Grading  and  track- 
laying  began  earlv  in  the  spring,  and  the  road  advanced 
rapidly,  reaching  the  Red  River  in  the  following  Decem- 
ber. The  engineering  questions  related  chiefly  to  the 
best  locations  tor  crossing  the  Mississippi  and  Crow  Wing 
Rivers,  and  to  plans  for  getting  through  the  lake  country 
by  a  line  that  should  deviate  as  little  as  possible  from  the 
general  direction  of  the  road.  There  were  no  deep  cuts 
or  fills  to  make  and  few  streams  to  cross.  The  road  was 
costly  in  proportion  to  the  present  standards  of  construe- 


THE  MIXXESOTA    AXD    WISCOXSIX  DIVISIOXS. 


385 


tion  charges,  but  it  was  built  in  a  time  of  liij;h  prices, 
before  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  and  the  lack 
of  inhabitants  in  the  region  it  traversed  added  consider- 
ably to  the  cost  of  labor,  supplies  and  materials.  There 
was  much  trouble  regarding  the  acceptance  of  the  road 
from  the  contractors.  Finally  there  was  a  compromise 
in  the  spring  of  1872,  and  the  line  to  Fargo,  which  had 
been  kept  open  during  the  winter  by  order  of  the  Board 
to  transport  construction  material  for  the  extension  into 
Dakota,  ;vas  regularly  opened  to  traffic. 

The  point  for  crossing  the  Red  River  was  not  finally 
determined  until  more  than  half  the  division  had  been 
built.  It  had  been  ordered  by  the  Board  of  Directors  the 
previous  year  that  the  crossing  should  be  "  at  a  point  six 
miles  north  of  ihc  block  store  or  warehouse  owned  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  at  Georgetown."  This  was  about 
twenty  miles  north  of  the  place  afterward  selected.  The 
change  was  made  in  August,  1871,  when  President  Smith, 
in  company  with  other  members  of  the  Board,  went  to  the 
Red  River  Valley  and  spent  a  week  riding  up  and  down 
the  stream  looking  for  the  most  feasible  place  com- 
bining the  two  features  they  desired  to  find — a  favorable 
crossing  and  a  good  site  for  a  town.  They  selected  the 
site  of  the  present  town  of  Moorhead  because  the  ground 
was  higher  there  than  at  any  other  places  on  the  river 
which  they  visited;  but  by  so  doing  President  Smith  was 
compelled  to  give  up  a  pet  plan  of  making  the  longest 
railway  tangent  in  America  by  building  due  west  forty 
miles  from  Hawley.  Two  town  sites  were  forthwith  laid 
out  at  the  crossing  by  the  Lake  Superior  and  Puget 
Sound  Land  Company,  a  corporation  organized  to  man- 
age all  the  town-sites  on  the  whole  line,  and  the  names  of 
two  of  the  Northern  Pacific  directors,  Mr.  Moorhead  and 
Mr.  Fargo,  were  bestowed  upon  them. 

The  maximum  grades  on  the  West  Minnesota  Division 
25 


'!'.   "    :i\ 


386 


NOR r HERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


are,  going  west,  50  feet  to  the  mile,  and,  going  cast,  40 
feet.  Tlic  bridge  across  the  Mississippi  at  Brainerd  is  a 
Post  truss  of  three  spans  of  142  feet  each,  and  one  of  97 
feet,  extended  at  one  end  by  a  Howe  truss  of  60  feet ; 
making  the  total  length  683  feet.  It  is  60  feet  above  low 
water.  Over  the  Crow  Wing  River,  a  stream  almost  as 
large  as  the  Mississippi  at  its  junction  with  that  river 
below  Brainerd,  the  track  is  carried  on  a  Howe  truss  of 
three  spans  of  125  feet  each.  A  new  iron  and  wood 
bridge  is  now  being  built  across  the  Red  River.  It  rests 
on  a  solid  masonry  pier,  which  stands  upon  compound 
piles  driven  in  48  feet.  The  bridge  carries  a  double 
track  and  has  a  draw  26  feet  in  the  clear;  the  end  rests 
being  wrought-iron  superstructure  based  on  iron-jacketed 
piles. 

THE    ST.    PAUL    DIVISION. 

The  St.  Paul  Division,  136  miles  in  length,  extends 
from  St.  Paul  to  Brainerd  in  a  direction  nearly  due  north, 
following  closely  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  River  all 
the  way.  The  only  heavy  grade  encountered  is  in  as- 
cending from  the  river-side,  following  the  course  of  Trout 
Brook.  Mere  the  ascent  is  ninety  feet  to  the  mile — a 
stiff  pull,  which  requires  an  extra  engine  for  all  heavy 
trains.  For  the  rest  of  the  way  the  track  of  the  division, 
running  along  the  secondary  bottom  of  the  valley,  has 
no  noticeable  grade.  From  St.  Paul  to  Brainerd  the 
whole  rise  is  500  feet,  200  of  which  are  surmounted  in 
the  first  five  miles  after  leaving  St.  Paul. 

TIIH   WISCONSIN    DIVISION. 


The  Wisconsin  Division  leaves  the  East  Minnesota 
Division  at  Northern  Pacific  Junction,  and,  descending 
by  easy  and  uniform  grades  of  50  feet  to  the  mile,  reaches 
the  lake  at  the  town  of  Superior,  opposite   the  entrance 


THE  MINXESOTA   AND    WISCOXSIX  DIVISIONS. 


387 


cast,  40 
nerd  is  a 
lie  of  97 
60  feet; 
bove  low 
Imost  as 
hat  river 
:  truss  of 
lid  wood 
It  rests 
impound 
a  double 
2nd  rests 
-jacketed 


extends 
ue  north, 
River  all 
is  in  as- 
of  Trout 
mile — a 
dl  heavy 
division, 
illey,  has 
nerd  the 
unted  in 


to  the  bay  of  the  same  name.  Here  a  large  dock  has 
been  constructed  for  the  transfer  of  freight  from  steam 
and  sail  vessels  to  cars.  Just  east  of  Superior  the  road 
crosses  the  Nemadji  River  by  a  drawbridge,  and  continues 
eastward  to  the  Montreal  River,  the  boundary  between 
the  State  of  Wisconsin  and  the  upper  peninsula  of  the 
State  of  Michigan.  At  the  time  this  chapter  is  written 
only  the  23^  miles  of  this  division  between  the  junction 
and  Superior  have  been  complcted;»The  work  was  mainly 
done  during  the  season  of  1882,  and  the  line  opened  in 
December  last.  Work  on  the  remainder  of  the  division  is 
in  progress.  The  line  traverses  a  forest  country  for  its 
entire  length,  where  there  arc  few  settlements.  For  fifty 
miles  cast  of  Superior  the  country  is  somewhat  h.illy  and 
difficult  to  build  across — swamps,  quagmires,  and  rocky 
riiges  pUcrnating  ;  further  east  there  is  much  level,  sandy 
surface,  moderately  well  timbered.  The  Wisconsin  Di- 
vision is  a  part  of  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific, 
the  charter  of  the  Company  authorizing  it  to  construct  a 
r:\ilroad  "  beginning  at  a  point  on  Lake  Superior  in  the 
State  of  Minnesota  or  Wisconsin,"  which  has  been  con- 
strued  to  mean  thai  the  road  may  be  extended  to  the 
boundary  between  those  States. 


linnesota 

ascending 

;,  reaches 

entrance 


T^ 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


THE    DAKOTA  AND   MISSOURI   DIVISION'S. 

Work  Bcj^iin  on  the  Dakota  Division  in  1872 — Tlic  Track  Completed  to 
Jamestown  in  1S72  and  to  I5i.-marck  in  1S73 — IJuilding  Across  an  Unin- 
linbiced  Region — The  Road  Reaches  he  Missouri  River  before  tijc 
Panic  of  1S73 — A  Description  of  the  Bismarck  liridt^e — Tlie  Missouri 
Division — Its  Highest  Summit  2, 800 Feet  Above  tlie  Sea — A  Track  I.nid 
Across  the  Missouri  River  on  the  Ice — Cliaracler  of  tlie  Work  pii  the 
Division — The  Bnd  Lands. 

The  Dakota  Division  begins  at  Fargo  aiul  civJs  at 
Manclan,  its  Icngtli  being  Kjg-}^  miles,  and  is  pfactically 
a  due  east  and  west  line,  the  termini  being  in  precisely 
the  same  latitude,  and  the  road  diverging  at  no  point 
more  than  six  miles  from  a  straight  line  drawn  on  a  map 
from  one  to  the  other.  The  work  of  construction  was 
begun  in  the  spring  of  1871',  and  the  track  reached 
Jamestown,  93j<i  miles,  by  the  end  of  the  working  sea- 
son. During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1S72  the  road 
was  built  to  Bismarck,  a  new  town  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Missouri  River,  which  remained  the  western  termi- 
nus until  1S78.  There  were  no  engineering  difficulties 
in  building  the  division,  but  the  contractors  had  the  per- 
plexities and  delays  to  encounter  inseparable  from  the 
task  of  pushing  a  railroad  across  vast  stretches  of  prairie 
destitute  of  timber  for  bridges  and  ties,  and  wholly 
without  population  to  furnish  food  and  draught  animals 
for  the  working  forces.  The  construction  parties  were 
obliged  to  advance  like  an  army  across  the  desert,  bring- 
ing all  their  materials  and  provisions  over  the  road  they 
were  building  from  a  base  of  supplies  ever  becoming 
more  and  more  distant.     There  was  not  a  solitary  scLtle- 


'■>: 
^ 


a 

o 
u 

(4 


s(.:tK 


V 

b 
I 

r 
h 
b 
li 
o 
F 
u 

P' 
w 
hi 
a  I 
bi 
ut 
M 
w; 
th 


THE   DAKOTA   AND  MISSOURI  Di]-ISIONS. 


389 


merit  between  the  Reel  River  and  the  Missouri  at  the 
time,  save  those  created  by  the  advance  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  track.  Construction  was  pushed  with  satisfactory- 
rapidity,  however,  and  had  fortunately  progressed  as  far 
as  the  Missouri  River,  a  natural  halting  place,  when  the 
Company  was  overtaken  by  the  financial  crisis  of  1873. 
At  Bismarck  there  was  river  navigation,  and  the  railroad 
opened  a  link  in  a  line  of  transportation  for  the  shipment 
01  goods  and  supplies  to  the  Government  posts  and  the 
Indian  agencies  on  the  upper  Missouri,  and  to  the  mining 
towns  in  remote  ^Montana.  Its  business  was  too  scanty, 
however,  to  pay  for  running  trains  over  the  Dakota 
Division  the  first  winter  after  it  was  opened,  and  the 
second  winter  the  division  was  only  operated  to  James- 
town. 

The  maximum  grade  on  the  Dakota  Division  going 
west  is  60  feet  to  the  mile,  and  going  east,  50  feet.  The 
bridges  over  the  Maple,  the  Shcyennc  and  the  James 
Rivers  are  unimportant  structures  of  a  single  span  each, 
raised  but  a  few  feet  above  high  water.  There  are  no 
heavy  cuts  or  fills,  save  at  the  approaches  to  the  great 
bridge  over  the  Missouri  River  at  Bismarck.  The  whole 
line  is  economical  to  operate  and  maintain.  The  surface 
of  the  country  traversed  for  the  first  forty  miles  west  of 
Fargo  is  almost  a  dead  level  ;  then  it  becomes  slightly 
undulating,  the  swells  and  ridges  growing  more  and  more 
perceptible  as  Jamestown  is  approached.  A  few  miles 
west  of  Jamestown  the  road  mounts  to  the  Coteaux,  a 
high  table-land  1,850  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea 
and  900  above  the  Red  River  at  Fargo,  Once  on  this 
broad  table  land  the  railroad  grade  follows  the  gentle 
undulations  of  the  surface,  and  finally  descends  to  the 
Missouri  bottom  along  Apple  Creek,  the  first  running 
water  encountered  west  of  the  Pipestone,  a  tributary  of 
the  James. 


M 


390 


NORTHERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  original  scheme  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
contemplated  a  bridge  over  the  Missouri  River  near  the 
town  of  Bismarck,  but  the  Company  was  not  in  a  financial 
condition  to  undertake  the  work  until  after  the  nego- 
tiation of  its  general  mortgage  bonds  in  18S0.  The 
Missouri  Division,  from  Mandan  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  river  to  the  Yellowstone,  was  operated  for  two 
years  in  connection  with  the  road  cast  of  the  Missouri 
by  means  of  a  transfer  boat  which  carried  trains  across, 
not  without  considerable  difficulty  in  times  of  high  water 
and  floating  ice.  In  the  winter  of  1880  George  S. 
Morison,-  an  eminent  bridge  engineer,  was  requested 
to  examine  the  river  at  this  point  in  conjunction  v/ith 
General  A.  Anderson,  engineer-in-chicf,  and  to  prepare  a 
report  on  the  best  method  of  crossing.  In  July,  1880, 
tilt,  preliminary  examinations  were  completed,  and  the 
location  of  the  bridge  virtually  fixed.  The  point  selected 
was  within  two  or  three  hundred  feet  of  the  line  on  which 
the  proposed  bridge  has  now  been  built ;  this  location  be- 
ing determined  as  combining  to  the  best  advantage  direct- 
ness of  route  with  a  favorable  bottom.  The  river  at  this 
point  is  about  2,800  feet  wide,  and  the  channel  variable, 
about  two-thirds  of  the  whole  width  of  the  river  being 
occupied,  except  at  extreme  high  water,  by  sand-bars,  as 
is  always  the  case  on  the  Missouri  where  the  width  be- 
tween high-water  banks  exceeds  1,000  or  1,200  feet. 

The  report  of  July,  1 880,  proposed  to  cross  the  river 
with  a  bridge  consisting  of  three  spans  of  400  feet  each, 
resting  on  solid  piers  of  granite  masonr}-.  A  dike  was 
to  be  built  from  the  west  shore  to  within  1,000  feet  of  the 
east  shore,  which  is  here  a  high  bluff  of  extremely  hard 
clay,  thus  confining  the  river  within  a  width  favorable  to 
the  maintenance  of  a  fixed  channel.  The  bridge  was  to 
be  located  about  500  feet  below  the  dike,  and,  to  provide 
for  contingencies,  was  made  200  feet  longer  than  the  width 


THE  DAKOTA   AND    MISSOURI  DIFJSIOiVS. 


391 


of  the  confined  river.  Ihis  plan  of  operations  was  after- 
ward carried  out,  and  the  completed  work  differs  in  no 
essential  respect  from  the  plans  contemplated  in  the  report 
of  July,  1880. 

The  construction  of  the  dike  was  begun  in  the  fall  of 
1880.  Unfortunately,  while  waiting  for  materials,  the 
main  navigable  channel  of  the  river  moved  ovrr  to  the 
west  shore,  and  when  work  was  actually  begun  it  was 
found  necessary  to  leave  this  channel  open  for  navigation. 
A  wired  willow  mattress  was  built,  however,  on  the  pro- 
posed location  of  the  dike,  from  the  east  side  of  the  navig- 
able channel  to  the  point  fixed  for  the  west  boundary 
of  the  corrected  channel,  leaving  a  space  between  the 
mattress  and  either  shore. 

On  the  i6th  of  December  a  vote  M-as  passed  by  the 
Board  of  Directors  by  which  the  immediate  construction 
of  the  bridge  was  determined  upon,  and  the  work  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Morison.  On  the  7th  of  Jan- 
uary H.  W.  Parkhurst,  who  had  been  appointed  by  Mr. 
Morison  first  assistant  engineer,  arrived  at  Bismarck  and 
took  charge  of  the  work  on  the  river. 

Ground  was  broken  for  the  bridge  in  May.  The  con- 
struction involved  three  totally  different  pieces  of  work — 
first,  the  control  and  rectification  of  the  river;  second, 
the  bridge  proper;  third,  the  approaches. 

The  control  and  rectification  of  the  river  consisted  in 
confining  it  to  the  1,000  feet  limit  between  the  east  shore 
and  the  end  of  the  dike,  and  the  protection  of  the  east 
shore  with  rip-rap,  so  as  to  render  it  doubly  secure  from 
the  eroding  action  of  the  water.  The  action  of  the 
dike  has  been  such  as  to  satisfy  the  engineers  of  the 
correctness  of  their  plans.  The  river  has  been  per- 
manently confined  to  a  width  of  1,000  feet  adjoining 
the  east  shore.  A  thick  growth  of  willows  has  started 
spontaneously  on   the  deposit  formed    by  the    river    in 


392 


NORTHER X  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


what  was   formerly  the  main  navigable  channel   adjoin- 
ing the  west  shore. 

The  bridge  proper  consists  of  three  through  spans, 
each  measuring  400  feet  between  centres  of  end  pins, 
and  two  approacii  spans,  each  113  feet.  It  is  a  high 
bridge,  the  bottom  cord  of  the  three  main  spans 
being  placed  fifty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  highest 
summer  flood,  thus  giving  head  room  to  pass  steam- 
boats at  all  navigable  stages  of  the  river.  The  head 
room  above  the  extreme  high  water  of  1881  is  42 
feet ;  but  this  water  was  an  exceptional  result  of  an  ice 
gorge,  which  necessarily  put  a  stop  to  all  navigation. 
Practically  the  bridge  gives  four  feet  more  head  room 
than  many  of  the  bridges  on  the  lower  river.  The  vari- 
able channel  and  the  high  bluff  on  the  east  side  were 
alone  sufficient  reasons  for  adopting  the  high  bridge 
plan  in  preference  to  a  low  bridge  with  a  draw.  The 
violent  action  of  the  ice  and  the  excessive  height 
of  the  ice  floods  were,  however,  the  controlling  ele- 
ments in  the  selection  of  the  high  bridge  plan.  The 
east  end  of  the  east  approach  span  is  supported  by  a 
small  abutment  of  granite  masonry,  founded  on  the 
natural  ground  of  the  bluff.  The  west  end  of  the  west 
approach  span  is  supported  by  an  iron  bent  resting  on 
two  Gushing  cylinders,  Avhich  are  supported  by  piles 
driven  into  the  sand-bar.  The  three  long  spans  are  sup- 
ported on  four  granite  piers.  Pier  i,  the  easterly  pier, 
rests  on  a  concrete  foundation,  the  base  of  which  is 
twenty  feet  below  ordinary  low  water  and  sixteen  feet 
below  the  estimated  extreme  low  water  due  to  ice  gorges. 
Piers  2  and  3,  which  are  in  the  channel  of  the  river,  arc 
founded  on  pneumatic  caissons,  sunk  into  the  underlying 
clay  to  a  depth  of  about  fifty  feet  below  ordinary  low 
water  and  ten  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  clay.  Pier  4 
is  situated  on  the  sand  bar  on  the  west  side  of  the  river 


THE  DAKOTA   AXD    :^riSSOURI  DIJ'ISfOXS. 


393 


The 


I:' 
I  5 


below  the  protection  of  tlie  dike,  and  rests  on  a  founda- 
tion of  l6o  piles,  which  were  driven  with  a  Nasniyth 
steam  hammer. 

The  apijroach  spans  are  deck  trusses  of  the  fish-bellied 
or  inverted  bow  string  pattern,  this  form  being  adopted 
to  keep  away  from  the  slope  of  the  embankment.  They 
arc  entirely  of  wrought  iron,  except  the  pins,  which  are 
of  steel,  and  the  wall  plates,  which  are  of  cast  iron.  Each 
span  contains  88,954  pounds  of  wrought  iron,  2,825 
pounds  of  steel,  and  5,686  pounds  of  cast  iron,  the  total 
weight  being  97,465  pounds. 

Each  of  the  three  main  channel  spans  measures  400  feet 
from  centre  to  centre  of  end  pins,  and  is  divided  into  six- 
teen panels  of  twenty-five  feet  each.  The  trusses  are  of 
the  double  system,  Pratt  or  Whipple  type,  are  fifty  feet 
deep  from  centre  to  centre  of  chords,  and  spaced  twenty- 
two  feet  apart  between  centres.  The  pedestals,  the  end 
posts,  top  chords,  the  ten  centre  panels  of  the  bottom 
chord,  and  all  the  pins  and  expansion  rollers  are  of  steel. 
All  other  parts  arc  of  wrought  iron,  except  the  filling 
rings,  wall  plates,  and  ornamental  work,  which  arc  of  cast 
iron.  Each  span  contains  600,950  pounds  of  wrought 
iron,  348,797  pounds  of  steel,  and  25,777  pounds  of  cast 
iron,  the  total  weight  of  each  span  being  975,524  pounds. 
The  steel  was  manufactured  in  an  open  hearth  furnace  and 
under  the  most  rigid  inspection.  It  is  of  such  a  character 
that  small  sample  bars  were  bent  double  and  flattened 
back  on  themselves  without  any  crack  on  the  outside ; 
one  of  the  full-sized  bars  intended  for  the  bridge  when 
tested  to  breaking  was  stretched  four  feet  in  twenty-five 
before  fracture  took  place.  The  long  spans  are  propor- 
tioned to  carry  two  seventy-five  ton  locomotives  followed 
by  a  train  of  30-foot  cars,  each  loaded  with  twenty  tons. 
With  this  assumed  moving  load  the  strains  on  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  structure  are  about  ten  to  twenty  per 


394 


NORTI/EKX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


cent,  less  per  square  inch  than  the  limits  wliich  g  ocl 
practice  has  sanctioned  in  many  other  brid<;es. 

The  east  approach  to  the  Bismarck  bridge  leaves  the 
old  main  line  at  Bismarck  station,  and  is  exactly  two 
miles  long.  It  differs  in  no  essential  respect  from  other 
portions  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  through  this 
section  of  the  country,  except  that  some  heavy  work  and 
sharp  curvature  is  encountered  on  the  face  of  the  bluffs 
adjoining  the  bridge.  The  west  approach  is  6,000  feet 
long  from  the  west  end  of  the  permanent  bridge  to  the 
old  track  on  the  low  bottom  land  between  the  river  and 
Mandan.  This  approach  has  a  grade  of  one  per  cent. 
(52.8  feet  per  mile),  descending  westward.  The  eastern 
1,500  feet  of  the  western  approach  is  built  across  the  space 
reclaimed  from  the  Missouri  River  by  the  action  of  the 
dike,  which  is  now  a  sand-bar  already  covered  with  a  fair 
growth  of  willows.  This  part  of  the  approach  consists  of 
a  timber  trestle,  the  maximum  height  of  which  is  about 
60  feet.  This  trestle  spans  the  main  steamboat  channel 
of  1880,  which  is  now  a  willow  swamp.  To  protect  this 
trestle  from  destruction  by  ice,  another  large  embankment 
has  been  built  on  the  up-stream  side  of  the  trestle,  which 
is  6  feet  higher  than  the  great  flood  of  March  30th,  1881. 
This  embankment  stops  the  flow  of  ice  carried  over  the 
top  of  the  dike.  The  timber  trestle  is  being  filled  in  with 
earth,  and  the  protection  embankment  is  so  located  that 
it  will  form  a  portion  of  the  final  filling. 

The  bridge  was  formally  opened  on  October  21st,  1882, 
and  tested  at  first  with  four  engines  crossing  from  east  to 
west,  and  then  with  eight  crossing  from  west  to  east.  A 
passenger  train  was  then  sent  over  from  the  Bismarck 
side.  The  event  was  celebrated  by  a  banquet  in  Bismarck 
that  evening.  The  Bismarck  bridge  and  approaches  form 
an  integral  part  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  being 
the  absolute  property  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 


1^ 


TJJE  DAKOTA   AND  MISSOURI  DIVISIONS. 


395 


Companyand  being  built  under  the  general  charter  granted 
by  the  National  Government  to  that  Company.  The  total 
cost  of  the  work  was  about  $i,0C)0,(X)0. 

From  Mandan  to  Glendive,  on  the  Yellowstone  River, 
the  main  lino  of  the  Northern  Pacific  is  called  the  Mis- 
souri Division.  This  division  is  216  miles  long,  and,  like 
the  Dakota  Division,  keeps  close  to  an  cast  and  west  line. 
Its  western  terminus  is  only  twelve  miles  north  of  the 
latitude  of  Mandan,  and  its  extreme  southern  divergence 
from  a  straight  line  between  the  two  points  is  only  six 
miles.  The  valleys  of  the  Heart  River  and  its  tributaries, 
the  Sweetbrier,  the  Curlew  and  the  Green,  are  followed 
pretty  closely  for  about  eighty  miles,  with  occasional  cuts 
across  the  plateaus  between  them.  In  the  first  thirty 
miles  there  is  a  gradual  ascent  of  400  feet,  then  a  long 
downward  ,,lopc,  followed  by  another  rise  to  the  broad 
table  lands  which  contain  the  sources  of  the  Heart  and 
the  Knife  Rivers.  Here  the  elevation  is  2,500  feet  above 
the  sea  and  900  above  the  Missouri  at  Mandan.  Then 
there  is  a  dip  of  200  feet  into  Green  River  valley,  and 
beyond  a  long  steady  rise  of  500  feet  to  Fryburg,  the 
highest  summit  on  the  division,  2,800  feet  above  the  sea 
level.  From  Fryburg  there  is  a  descent  of  500  feet  in  ten 
miles  to  the  Little  Missouri  River,  which  is  crossed  by  a 
low  truss  of  a  single  span.  Beyond  this  stream  the  road 
steadily  mounts  for  thirty  miles  with  some  minor  dips, 
until,  surmounting  the  heaviest  grade  on  the  division,  at 
Beaver  Hill  (65  feet  to  the  mile),  it  again  attains  nearly 
the  same  altitude  as  at  Fryburg,  and  then  descends  300 
feet  in  twenty-eight  miles  and  reaches  the  val'  .y  jf  the 
Yellowstone. 

The  building  of  the  Missouri  Division  was  begun  early 
in  1878,  by  the  transportation  of  ties,  iron  and  other 
material  in  the  dead  of  winter  across  the  Missouri  River 
on  the  ice.     A  track  was  laid  upon  the  frozen  surface  of 


TT 


396 


A'O A' 77//: AW  PACIIIC  KAIl.KOAD. 


ii 


the  stream  under  the  direction  of  General  Rosser,  then 
the  engineer  in  charge  of  construction,  and  for  several 
weeks  locomotives  and  cars  were  run  from  bank  to  bank, 
until  the  fires  were  actually  put  out  on  the  engines  by 
the  water  which  covered  the  melting  ice,  and  th  ;rd- 

ous  passages  weie  discontinued  and  the  track  removed  a 
few  days  before  the  frozen  bridge  yielded  to  the  rising 
current  of  the  river.  General  Rosscr's  venturesome  ex- 
ploit attracted  wide  notice,  and  the  Northern  Pacific  ice 
bridge  was  pictured  in  the  illustrated  papers.  As  soon  as 
the  spring  flood  had  somewhat  abated,  connection  was  re- 
opened between  the  two  banks  by  means  of  a  transfer 
steamboat  carrying  trains  from  shore  to  shore — a  means  of 
conimunication  employed  until  the  completion  of  the 
Bismarck  bridge  in  October,  1882. 

From  Mandan  to  Fryburg,  136  miles,  construction 
involved  only  light  work,  save  for  the  numerous  ""''idges 
across    the    Heart    and    its    tributaries.     The  --t   is 

crossed  four  times  in  a  distance  often  miles,  and  ^.  .ittle 
Sweetbricr,  winding  from  side  to  side  of  its  narrow  valley, 
required  numerous  short  pile  bridges.  Lately  the  ex- 
pedient of  making  cut-offs  for  this  stream  has  been 
resorted  to,  and  several  of  the  bridges  have  been  replaced 
by  embankments.  From  Fryburg  to  Beaver  Creek  the 
road  traverses  that  singular  region  known  as  the  Bad 
Lands,  where  the  grotesque  buttes  of  clay,  baiced  into 
terra-cotta  by  subterranean  fires  of  lignite,  forced  the 
engineers  to  make  numerous  curves,  and  in  some  places 
to  effect  deep  cuts  through  the  soft,  brick-like  substance. 
For  several  miles  the  track  is  ballasted  with  the  red  frag- 
ments from  these  cuts.  The  road  made  slow  progress 
through  the  Bad  Lands.  Up  to  this  region  the  track  had 
been  built  across  a  level  or  slightly  rolling  country,  desti- 
tute of  timber  after  leaving  the  forests  of  Minnesota,  and 
offering    no    obstacles   to    rapid   and   continuous   work 


THE   DAKOTA   AXD   MfSSOrRI  DIVISIOXS. 


397 


Now,  however,  there  were  huge  buttcs  to  cut  through, 
deep  ravines  to  fill,  and  trestles  to  build,  md  the  difficutty 
of  the  task  was  increased  by  the  great  distance  from  the 
nearest  base  of  supplies,  and  by  the  frequent  presence  of 
hostile  Indians  in  the  vicinity.  Once  beyond  the  Bad 
Lands  belt— there  about  thirty  miles  wide— a  fine  rolling 
prairie  was  crossed,  and  thence  the  valley  of  Glendive 
creek  afforded  an  easy  route  down  to  the  Yellowstone. 


CHAPTER   XLIV. 

THE   YELLOWSTONE   AND    MONTANA  DIVISIONS. 

Up  Ihc  "S'cllowstoac  Valley — A  Diflicult  Line  lo  Build — The  Unstable, 
Crumbling;  lilufts  Undermined  by  the  Action  of  tlie  River — Dikes  and 
Wing  Dams  Constructed — 34  Miles  of  Rock-cutting — Long  Tangents 
and  I'".asy  tjradcs — Completion  of  the  Yellowstone  Division  in  iSS2 — 
Tiie  Montana  Division — The  Yellowstone  Bridges — Crossing  the  Belt 
Mountains — The  15i)zcman  Lass  and  Tunnel — Difficulties  Overcome  in 
Constructing  the  Tunnel — Sluicing  out  the  Eastern  Approacli — Early 
Surveys — Johnson'j  and  Roberts'  Routes — The  Descent  of  the  Pass — 
The  Gallatin  \'alley  and  the  Upper  Canon  of  tlic  Missouri — Progress 
and  Completion  of  the  Division — The  National  Park  Branch. 


From  Glciulivc,  the  railroad  follows  the  course  of  the 
Yellowstone  for  340  miles  to  Livingston.  The  portion  of 
t'ic  road  between  Glendive  and  BilHngs,  225  miles,  con- 
stitutes the  Yellowstone  Division.  Although  a  val- 
ley line,  this  division  was  by  no  means  an  easy  or  inex- 
pensive one  to  build.  The  valley  of  the  Yellowstone  is 
a  narrow  one,  varying  in  width  from  five  to  ten  miles, 
and  along  its  whole  length  it  is  hemmed  in  by  lines  of 
high,  precipitous  bluffs  of  an  average  height  of  150  feet. 
Winding  from  side  to  side  of  the  level  bottom  land  be- 
tween these  massive  walls,  the  powerful  stream  washes 
the  base  of  the  bluff  on  oiiC  side  or  the  other.  One  of 
two  plans  had  to  be  followed  by  the  railroad  engineers  : 
cither  to  bridge  the  river  at  every  sharp  bend  in  its 
course,  or  to  follow  one  bank  and  cut  a  roadway 
through  the  rocky  precipices  wherever  they  are  closely 
Imgged  by  the  stream.  The  latter  course  was  adopted 
from  Glendive  to  BilHngs,  and  the  south  bank  selected  for 
the  route.     The  problems  of  construction  were  rendered 


)NS. 

Unstable, 
•Dikes  nnd 

Tangents 

in  1SS2— 
g  the  Belt 
vcrcome  in 
aeh — Kaily 

the  Pass— 
I — rrogiesb 


se  of  the 
Drtion  of 
les,  con- 
li  a   val- 
or inex- 
/stonc  is 
n  miles, 
lines  of 
50  feet, 
and  be- 
washes 
One  of 
,Mneers : 
i   in    its 
roadway 
closely 
dopted 
ctcd  for 
endered 


73 

a 
o 

u 
ta 

3 


u 
en 


r         r 


THE    YELLOWSTONE  AND  MONTANA  DIVISIONS. 


359 


far  more  difficult  than  was  apparent  at  first  sight,  formid- 
able as  seemed  the  work  of  carving  a  road-bed  out  of  the 
face  of  lofty  precipices,  by  the  peculiar  character  of  the 
rock  composing  the  bluffs.  This  is  of  so  porous  and  un- 
stable a  nature  that  it  disintegrates  under  the  action  of 
the  weather,  so  that  the  roadway  once  cut  out  was  con- 
stantly being  obstructed  by  slides  of  rock  and  earth 
coming  down  from  the  slopes.  To  make  matters  worse, 
while  the  cliffs  were  sending  down  great  masses  of 
crumbling  material  to  obliterate  the  track,  the  river 
was  steadily  undermining  the  road  bed.  These  serious 
difficulties  encountered  at  several  points,  and  in  some 
places  for  a  distance  of  three  or  four  miles  in  con- 
tinuous length,  were  finally  mastered  by  filling  in  on 
the  river  side  with  material  taken  from  the  cliffs,  thus 
giving  them  more  slope,  removing  the  track  out  a  few 
yards  from  their  base,  and  protecting  the  embankments 
where  washed  by  the  river  by  rip-rap  work.  The  rip- 
rapping  did  not,  however,  answer  in  places  where  the 
current  struck  the  bank  with  considerable  force,  and  it 
was  found  necessary  to  turn  the  channel  away  from  the 
shore  by  dikes  thrown  across  to  islands  or  by  wing  dams 
built  out  into  the  stream.  These  constructions  are  com- 
posed of  willow  fascines,  twelve  feet  long,  laid  in  a  double 
tier,  at  an  angle  of  33  degrees  with  the  course  of  the 
dike,  each  layer  crossing  the  one  below.  The  large  ends 
of  the  fascines  are  placed  down  stream  so  as  to  give  a 
slope  to  the  top  of  the  dam.  Over  each  course  stakes 
are  driven  down  five  feet,  and  the  top?  bound  together 
with  half-inch  rope.  Then  18  inches  of  gravel  is  put  on 
and  worked  down  into  the  brush  to  make  a  solid  wall,  be- 
fore the  second  course  of  fascines  is  added.  When  the 
dike  is  of  sufficient  height  it  is  covered  with  heavy  rocks. 
The  silt  from  the  river  fills  up  the  interstices  in  the  fas- 
cines and  a  growth  of  willow  soon  covers  the  dike.     The 


U'. 


40O 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


most  important  of  these  constructions  are  Eagle  dike, 
which  is  400  feet  long,  and  Iron  Bluff  dike  1200,  each 
reaching  out  to  an  island.  These  works  have  caused  the 
main  channel  of  the  river  to  shift  to  the  north  side  of 
the  islands.  For  the  wing  dams,  fascine  work  has  been 
used  at  some  places,  and  at  others  cribs  of  logs  filled  in 
with  stone  have  been  found  successful. 

There  are  in  all  on  the  Yellowstone  Division  34  miles 
of  rock  cutting  along  the  face  of  the  bluffs,  the  longest 
continuous  stretch  being  that  at  Myers  Bluffs,  156  miles 
from  Glendive,  which  is  seven  miles  in  length.  As  the 
valley  is  ascended,  the  rock  becomes  harder,  and  the  diffi- 
culty on  account  of  slides  diminishes.  The  most  trouble- 
some point  in  this  respect  was  found  to  be  Iron  Bluff, 
ten  miles  from  Glendive,  where  the  cliffs  are  a  conglomer- 
ate of  soft  sand-stone  and  soapy  clay,  with  little  consis- 
tency, and  display  a  troublesome  tendency  to  slide  into 
the  river.  A  solid  and  safe  road-bed  was  finally  .'secured 
at  this  place. 

To  compensate  for  the  costly  and  troublesome:  bluff 
cutting,  the  railroad,  where  it  finds  the  bottom  land  on  its 
own  side  of  the  river,  has  many  long  tangents,  nearly  level, 
without  fills  or  cuts,  and  involving  little  more  labor  to  build 
than  throwing  up  enough  earth  with  scrapers  for  a  road- 
bed. One  of  these  level  stretches  is  16  miles  long,  another 
13,  a  number  5  to  8  miles. 

The  maximum  grade  on  this  division  is  53  feet  to  the 
mile,  at  Iron  Bluff,  but  this  is  only  for  half  a  mile  each 
way.  On  all  the  rest  of  the  division  there  is  no  grade  ex- 
ceeding 26  feet  to  the  mile.  The  most  important  bridges 
are  those  over  the  Powder  River,  between  ^lorgan  and  • 
Terry  Stations,  the  Tongue  River  at  Miles  City,  the  Big 
Horn  River,  near  Custer,  and  the  Yellowstone,  two  miles 
below  Billings.  These  are  all  timber  truss  structures 
resting  on  piers  formed  of  piles  and  cribbing  filled  in  with 


miles 


THE    YELLOWSTONE  AXD  MONT  AX  A    DIVISIONS 


401 


rock,  and  will  in  time  be  replaced  by  stone  piers  and  iron 
bridges.  The  longest  is  the  Powder  River  bridge,  which 
has  600  feet  of  Howe  truss  in  four  spans,  and  a  pile  ap- 
proach of  300  feet.  The  Big  Horn  and  Yellowstone 
bridges — the  latter  known  as  the  first  crossing  of  the  Yel- 
lowstone— each  consists  of  three  spans  of  150  feet. 

The  first  tunnel  •"  -est  of  Lake  Superior  is  through  a 
bluff  about  two  miles  beyond  the  Big  Horn  bridge.  It  is 
1,070  feet  long,  and  runs  through  clay,  earth  and  porous 
sand-rock,  and  is  timbered  for  its  entire  length. 

Work  on  the  Yellowstone  Division  began  at  Glendive 
in  the  spring  of  1881.  The  track  reached  Miles  City, 
78  miles,  in  December,  and  a  few  miles  of  grading  were 
completed  beyond.  During  the  spring  and  summer  of 
1882  the  division  was  completed,  the  track  reaching  Bil- 
lings August  22d. 

The  Montana  Division,  extending  from  Billings  to 
Helena,  a  distance  of  239  miles,  has  the  general  charac- 
teristics of  the  Yellowstone  Division,  as  far  as  Living- 
ston, 115  miles,  in  so  far  as  it  follows  the  valley  of  the 
river.  The  work  is  lighter,  however,  there  being  com- 
paratively little  bluff-cutting  and  that  of  a  more  manage- 
able character,  the  stone  being  so  hard  that  the  slopes  do 
not  crumble.  Much  the  greater  part  of  the  line  runs, 
across  the  long  level  stretches  of  the  second  bench  above 
the  river.  There  is  no  grade  heavier  than  the  very  easy 
one  of  26  feet  as  far  west  as  the  head  of  the  valley.  Near 
Stillwater,  and  at  a  point  37  miles  west  of  Billings,  the 
road  crosses  to  the  south  bank  of  the  Yellowstone  by  a 
truss  bridge  of  three  spans  of  150  feet  each  and  one  of 
100  feet,  resting  upon  plank  and  pile  cribs  filled  Avith 
stone.  At  Livingston  the  river  is  crossed  again  by  a 
bridge  of  similar  construction,  having  two  spans  of  150 
feet  each,  with  a  piling  approach  over  a  branch  of  the 
stream. 

26 


■^! 


402 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


At  Livingston,  where  the  repair  shops  of  the  division 
arc  established,  the  character  of  the  road  changes  at  once. 
Here  the  river  comes  out  of  the  lofty  snow-covered  mount- 
ains which  surround  the  National  Park,  flowing  through 
deep  cafions.  Its  course  up  to  this  point  is  north,  but 
at  Livingston  it  turns  to  the  east  and  develops  the  beau- 
tiful valley  which  admirably  serves  as  the  route  of  the 
railroad  for  340  miles  to  Glendive.  West  of  Livingston 
rises  the  high  ridge  of  the  Belt  or  Bridger  range,  which 
separates  the  waters  of  the  upper  Yellowstone  from  those 
of  the  three  rivers  forming  the  upper  Missouri.  Here 
the  Northern  Pacific  encounters  its  first  mountain  bar- 
rier. Forti^nately,  nature  made  a  depression  in  this  range, 
known  as  the  Bozeman  Pass,  from  the  summit  of  which 
small  streams  flow  in  both  directions,  affording  conven- 
ient approaches  for  a  railroad.  The  charter  of  the 
Company  provides  that  no  grades  shall  be  used  steeper 
than  the  maximum  grades  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad,  which  arc  1 16  feet  to  the  mile.  That  figure 
was  therefore  adopted  for  the  ascent  and  descent  of  the 
Belt  range.  It  was  not  sufficient,  however,  to  carry  the 
road  over  the  pass,  and  a  tunnel  of  3,610  feet  in  length 
was  req-iired.  Work  on  the  tunnel  began  February  ii, 
1882,  almost  simultaneously  with  the  work  on  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Montana  Division  at  Billings.  To 
avoid  delay  in  track- laying  beyond  the  divide,  a  high 
grade  line  two  and  one-half  miles  in  length  was  built  over 
the  crest  of  the  ridge  in  the  winter  of  1882-3,  with  grades 
of  220  feet  to  the  mile,  and  by  this  means  the  road  was 
pushed  forward  west  of  the  tunnel  without  interruption. 

The  elevation  of  the  summit  in  the  Bozeman  Tunnel 
above  the  sea  level  is  5,565  feet,  which  is  17  feet  higher 
than  that  of  the  Mullan  Tunnel  through  the  main  divide 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  west  of  Helena,  described  in 
the  following  chapter.     The  highest  point  in  the  Boze- 


THE    YELLOWSTONE  ANO  MONTANA    DL VISIONS.    403 


division 
at  once. 
J  mount- 
through 
)rth,  but 
he  beau- 
e  of  the 
vingston 
e,  which 
)m  those 
i.     Here 
:ain  bar- 
is  range, 
dF  vvhicii 
conven- 
or   the 
[  steeper 
id  Ohio 
it  figure 
t  of  the 
arry  the 
length 
uary  11, 
le  com- 
s.      To 
a  high 
ilt  over 
grades 
)ad  was 
jption. 
Tunnel 
higher 
divide 
Ibed  in 
Boze- 


man  Pass  is  5,813  feet  above  the  sea,  and  256  feet  above 
the  grade  of  the  tunnel,  and  the  lowest  point  in  the  pass 
is  the  grade  of  the  temporary  road,  which  is  5,714  feet. 
Within  the  tunnel  the  grade  is  53  feet  to  the  mile  to  the 
summit,  from  whence  it  is  only  five  feet  to  the  mile  to 
the  western  portal,  where  the  standard  mountain  grade 
of  1 16  feet  is  resumed. 

The  tunnel  is  20  feet  high  in  the  clear  and  16  feet 
wide.  The  total  ascent  from  Livingston  to  its  eastern 
portal,  a  distance  of  12  miles,  is  1,052  feet.  On  the  other 
side  the  ascent  from  Bozeman  to  its  western  portal,  a 
distance  of  ii^  miles,  is  812  feet.  Unexpected  difficul- 
ties were  experienced  by  the  engineers  in  opening  the 
eastern  approach  of  the  tunnel.  The  mountain  side  is 
composed  of  sticky  blue  clay,  saturated  with  the  water 
of  numerous  springs,  and  as  fast  as  excavations  were 
made  they  were  filled  up  by  slides.  During  the  month 
of  March  the  contractors  were  able  to  handle  only  2,000 
cubic  yards  of  earth.  On  the  4th  of  July  a  large  slide 
occurred,  which  filled  up  a  considerable  part  of  the  cut 
made  by  more  than  four  months  of  labor  with  a  force  of 
men  as  great  as  could  be  used  effectively.  Everybody 
was  discouraged.  There  seemed  to  be  no  v;ay  of  over- 
coming the  difficulty  by  the  usual  methods  of  railway 
construction.  As  fast  as  the  mushy  clay  was  taken  out 
of  the  cut  the  sides  would  cave  in,  or  rather  run 
in.  In  this  emergency  Mr.  Sloan,  County  Treasurer  of 
Gallatin  County,  suggested  to  the  division  engineer, 
J.  T.  Dodge,  the  plan  of  resorting  to  hydraulics.  It 
was  immediately  adopted.  A  ditch  and  sluiceway  were 
constructed  from  Middle  Creek,  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  mountain  range,  and  carried  over  the  divide  to  the 
tunnel  approach — a  distance  of  three  miles.  By  this  means 
250  miners*  inches  of  water  were  obtained,  and  with  the 
usual  hose  and  nozzle   employed  in  hydraulic    mining. 


IP 


404 


NORTJIER.V  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ground-sluicing  was  begun  on  August  loth,  1882.  The 
experiment — a  novel  one  in  railway  construction — was  en- 
tirely successful.  In  the  first  twelve  days  8,720  cubic 
yards  of  earth  were  washed  out.  When  slides  occurred 
they  were  no  longer  serious  obstacles  to  progress,  but 
were  sluiced  out  in  a  few  hours  time.  On  September 
24th  the  cut  was  completely  washed  out,  and  the  rock 
'vork  began  the  next  day.  On  October  28th  the  portal 
of  the  tunnel  was  opened.  The  cost  of  removing  the 
earth,  which  had  been  ninety  cents  per  cubic  yard,  was 
reduced  to  eight  cents.  The  greatest  depth  of  the  cut  is 
63  feet,  and  its  length  601  feet.  It  is  approached  by  an 
embankment  50  feet  high  and  1,300  feet  long. 

Work  on  the  western  approach  began  April  20th,  1882. 
Here  there  was  no  trouble  at  first.  The  length  of  the 
cut  is  690  feet,  and  its  greatest  depth  57.  The  surface 
rock  was  reached  in  June,  and  the  tunnel  proper  begun 
September  1st.  The  rock  throughout  the  tunnel  is  a  fine 
blue  sandstone.  At  the  east  end  it  is  quite  solid,  and 
only  50  feet  of  timbering  are  required  ;  but  at  the  west- 
ern end  it  is  broken  up  with  seams,  and  timbering  is  re- 
quired for  nearly  a  thousand  feet  of  the  way  to  the  cen- 
tre. After  the  western  heading  was  in  437  feet,  the  roof 
caved  in,  bringing  down  all  the  rock  and  earth  from  the 
surface  of  the  ground  47  feet  above,  and  it  was  necessary 
to  make  a  new  tunnel  through  the  fallen  mass.  Happily 
nobody  was  injured  by  the  mishap.  The  tunnel  is  not 
completed  at  the  lime  of  the  publication  of  this  book,  but 
is  expected  to  be  finished  by  the  close  of  the  current 
year. 

The  Bozerr.an  Pass  was  selected  for  the  crossing-place 
of  the  Belt  range  only  after  careful  surveys  had  been 
made  of  all  other  passes  that  offered  the  least  encourage- 
ment to  the  eye  of  the  skilful  engineer.  The  line  first 
contemplated  by  Edwin  F.  Johnson,  the  first  chief  en- 


THE    YELLOWSTONE  AND  MONTANA    DIVISIONS. 


405 


82.  The 
—was  en- 
'20  cubic 
occurred 
ress,  but 
iptember 
the  rock 
he  portal 
iving  the 
►^ard,  was 
:he  cut  is 
led  by  an 

)th,  1882. 

h   of  the 

t  surface 

zx  begun 

1  is  a  fine 

olid,  and 

the  west- 

ng  is  re- 

thc  cen- 

the  roof 

"rom  the 

lecessary 

Happily 

el  is  not 

)ook,  but 

current 

ng-place 
ad  been 
courage- 
line  first 
:hief  en- 


gineer of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  left  the  Yellow- 
stone at  a  point  near  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Horn,  and 
crossed  a  divide  in  the  Bull  Mountains  to  the  Mussel- 
shell. One  plan  was  to  go  down  Smith's  River  to  the 
Missouri,  and  thence  to  Helena  by  way  of  the  Gate  of 
the  Mountains ;  another,  and  a  more  feasible  one,  to  fol- 
low the  head-waters  of  the  Musselshell  up  into  the  Belt 
range,  and  come  down  to  the  Missouri  Valley  by  a  pass 
at  the  head  of  Sixteen-Mile  Creek.  This  latter  route  was 
surveyed,  after  W.  Milnor  Roberts  became  chief  engineer, 
by  engineers  Hayden  and  Muhlenberg.  It  offered  the 
advantage  of  a  pass  requiring  no  tunnel,  but  it  had  one 
more  summit  to  cross  than  the  route  up  the  Yellowstone 
to  the  Bozeman  Pass,  and  was  also  considerably  longer. 
Mr.  Roberts'  line  over  the  Bozeman  Pass  was  run  with 
the  primary  object  of  obtaining  a  grade  of  only  60  feet  to 
the  mile.  To  this  end  the  line  was  carried  higher  up 
on  the  side  of  the  narrow  valley  leading  to  the  pass  than 
the  one  subsequently  adopted  when  construction  began. 
It  crossed  the  numerous  gulches  and  lateral  valleys, 
and  would  have  required  a  great  deal  of  filling  and  trestle- 
work.  A  short  tunnel  was  contemplated  at  the  pass.  The 
Roberts  line  was  four  miles  longer  than  the  actual  line, 
and  would  probably  have  cost  a  million  dollars  more  to 
build.  Before  construction  work  began  on  the  road  over 
the  pass,  engineer  Beckler  ran  a  line  up  Shield's  River 
from  the  Yellowstone  and  across  to  the  Missouri  by  the 
Sixteen-Mile  Creek  Pass.  This  pass  was  found  to  be  300 
feet  lower  than  the  Bozeman  Pass,  and  it  could  be  sur- 
mounted by  a  short  open  cut,  but  the  route  was  40  miles 
longer  than  the  one  adopted. 

The  descent  from  the  Bozeman  Tunnel  down  Rocky 
Cafion  is  effefcted  without  sharp  curves  and  with  but  a 
small  amount  of  rock  excavation  on  the  steep  hill-sides. 
A  level  stretch  of  thirty  miles  of  track  down  the  valley  of 


pil'USi 


406 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


the  West  Gallatin  follows.  The  stream  and  its  neighbor, 
the  East  Gallatin,  are  crossed  by  low  pile  bridges,  as  is 
also  the  Missouri  a  few  miles  above  the  point  where  the 
two  Gallatins,  Madison  and  Jefferson  unite  to  forn!  it. 
The  general  direction  of  the  road  is  now  nearly  north- 
ward. Below  the  Three  Forks  it  outers  the  Upper  Cafion 
of  the  Missouri ;  a  magnificent  gorge,  where  the  river  runs 
with  swift  current  between  lofty  walls  of  rock  tinged  with 
purple,  green  and  yellow  hues  by  metallic  deposits,  and 
worn  by  the  elements  into  picturesque  crags  and  but- 
tresses, and  the  semblance  of  mighty  walls  of  masonry.  In 
many  places  the  road-bed  is  cut  out  of  the  precipitous 
cliffs ;  in  others  it  finds  room  on  strips  of  bottom-land  at 
their  feet.  The  grade  follows  the  stream  closely,  and  its 
descent  is  about  that  of  the  river.  The  rock  work  was 
not  difficult  in  the  cafion,  being,  for  the  most  part,  easily 
excavated  with  pick  and  shovel  without  blasts.  At  its 
northern  limit,  about  twenty  miles  from  the  Three  Forks, 
the  cafion  is  succeeded  by  a  fine  arable  valley  about  fifty 
miles  long  by  from  five  to  ten  wide,  as  inviting  to  the 
railroad  engineer  as  a  Dakota  prairie.  About  mi^Uvay 
in  the  valley's  length  the  road  crosses  the  Missouri  on  a 
temporary  pile  bridge,  soon  to  be  replaced  by  an  iron 
structure,  and,  bending  to  the  noithwest,  goes  over  a  low 
summit  between  Beaver  Creek  and  Prickly  Pear  Creek  with 
a  grade  of  fifty-two  feet  to  the  mile,  and  then  across  the 
valley  of  the  latter  stream  to  Helena. 

Track-laying  on  the  Montana  Division  was  pushed 
forward  during  the  entire  winter  of  1882-3,  save  when 
interrupted  by  short  spells  of  extremely  cold  weather. 
In  laying  the  temporary  track  over  the  Bozeman  Pass  the 
laborers  were  sometimes  obliged  to  shovel  the  snow  from 
the  ground  to  go  on  with  the  work  on  the  grade.  The 
track  reached  the  town  of  Bozeman  on  the  14th  of  March, 
a  week  earlier  than  the  citizens  had  anticipated.     On  the 


THE    YELLOWSTONE  AND  MONTANA   DIVISIONS,    ^q-j 


neighbor, 

ges,  as  is 
i'hcre  the 
forn;  it. 
ly  north- 
er Can  on 
ivcr  runs 
gcd  with 
•sits,  and 
ind  but- 
3nry.    In 
-cipitous 
i-land  at 
',  and  its 
ork  was 
*t,  easily 
At  its 
e  Forks, 
out  fifty 
\  to  the 
midway 
jri  on  ci 
an  iron 
er  a  low 
-ek  with 
ross  the 


2ist  tiie  arrival  of  the  first  passenger  train  was  celebrated 
by  cannon-firing,  speeches,  a  procession  and  a  banquet. 
Many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Gallatin  Valley  had  never 
seen  a  railroad  train  before.  In  June  the  division  was 
completed  to  Helena,  and  the  event  was  commemorated 
by  public  rejoicing  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 

At  Livingston  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
approaches  within  fifty-four  miles  of  the  National  Park — 
that  region  of  natural  wonders  lying  high  up  among, 
mountain  summits  on  the  water-shed  of  the  continent, 
where  rise  the  streams  that  feed  the  Missouri,  the  Colum- 
bia and  the  Colorado.  The  wisdom  of  making  this  mar- 
velous domain,  set  apart  as  an  immense  park  and  pleasure 
ground  by  Congress,  accessible  to  tourists  by  rail,  early 
occurred  to  the  Northern  Pacific  managers.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1S83  a  branch  road  was  built  by  the  Oregon  and 
Transcontinental  Company,  which,  beginning  at  Living- 
ston, follows  the  Yellowstone  River  through  the  Lower 
Cafion  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Park,  ending  at 
a  point  near  the  Mammoth  Hot  Springs.  Permission 
to  carry  the  road  forward  to  some  central  place  in  the 
Park  was  refused  by  the  Government.  The  construction 
of  the  line  was  not  difficult,  save  for  some  pretty  heavy 
rock-cutting  at  narrow  places  in  the  cafion.  Grading 
was  begun  in  April,  1 883,  and  track-laying  completed  in 
August. 


pushed 
e  when 
k^eather. 
'ass  the 
>w  from 
;.  The 
March, 
On  the 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE   ROCKY  MOUNTAIN'  AND  I'END  D'OREILLE  DIVISIONS. 

Across  the  Main  Divide — Fifteen  Passes  Surveyed — Why  the  Mullan  Pass 
was  Selected — A  Description  of  tlie  Mullan  'I'unnel — Unexpected  Diffi- 
culties Encountered— Only  Six  Miles  of  Heavy  Grades — Contrast  be- 
tween the  Eastern  and  Western  Slopes — Tend  d'Oreille  Division — Easy 
Grades  and  Long  Tangents — The  Snake  River  Bridge  and  the  long  Pile 
Bridges  across  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille — The  Line  along  the  Clark's  Fork 
River — Serious  Obstacles  to  Construction — Den>e  Forests,  Precipitous 
Mountains,  Deep  Canons,  and  Clay  Slides — A  Wild  and  Rugged  Region 
— I'-Mornious  Powder  Hla^-ts — A  Phenomenal  Slide  of  Forty  Acres — The 
Coriacan  Defde — The  O'Kcefe  and  Marent  Gulch  Trestles — Valley  of 
the  Hell  Gate  River. 


The  Rocky  Mountain  Division  extends  from  Helena 
to  Heron,  a  distance  of  274  miles,  and,  like  the  Montana 
and  Yellowstone  Divisions,  lies  wholly  within  the  Terri- 
tory of  Montana.  Much  engineering  skill  and  research 
were  expended  upon  the  survey  and  definite  location  of 
this  portion  of  the  Northern  Pacific  line.  Having  once 
attained  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Missouri  by  a  short 
line  over  the  Bozeman  Pass,  the  question  was,  how  best 
to  carry  the  road  over  the  main  divide  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  so  as  to  reach  the  Pacific  slope.  The  prelimi- 
nary surveys  in  1S71  and  1872  disclosed  no  fewer  than 
fifteen  passes  through  which  it  was  practicable  to  build  a 
railroad,  but  these  varied  greatly  in  elevation  and  facility 
of  approach,  and  the  range  of  choice  w  is  fii  illy  1  .^i  i  owed 
down  to  three,  the  Mullan,  the  Littlf^     'fm    tone,  and  the 


Deer  Lodjie.     The  Mullan  Pass  re 


J  a  loner  t' 


ne 


but  it  gave  the  shortest  line;  the  1        stone  would  have 
around  by  the  important  ;■    ver  and  cop- 


thrown  the  road 


per  mining  centre  of  Butte,  but  its  summit  was  the  high- 


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THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIX  DIVISION. 


409 


2 


est  of  the  three,  and  its  approach  grades  would  have  been 
the  worst ;  and  it  was  further  objectionable  on  the  score 
of  the  length  of  road  required  to  reach  it.  This  latter 
objection  lay  against  the  Deer  Lodge  Pass,  which  was  of 
easy  approach  and  required  no  tunnel,  but  which  made  a 
line  forty  miles  longer  than  by  way  of  the  Mullan  Pass. 
Chief  Engineer  Roberts  adopted  the  Deer  Lodge  Pass,  in 
spite  of  the  long  detour  it  demanded  ;  but  after  he  left  the 
service  of  the  Company  his  successor,  General  Adna 
Anderson,  changed  the  location  to  the  Mullan  Pass. 
The  new  location  was  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Directors 
in  1881,  but  was  not  formally  approved  by  the  Interior 
Department  at  Washington  until  May,  1883. 

Construction  work  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  Division 
began  at  the  Mullan  Tunnel  December  14,  188 1.  The 
approach  to  the  tunnel  from  the  east  is  by  way  of  a  high 
trestle  carried  over  a  ravine,  and  by  an  embankment  sev- 
enty feet  high  at  its  highest  point  resting  against  a  steep 
mountain  slope  for  its  entire  length.  In  order  to  open 
tiie  east  heading  on  the  precipitous  ".;cline  of  the  ridge  to 
be  pierced  it  was  only  necessary  to  ow  down  a  little 
earth  and  loose  rock,  and  the  face  of  the  granite  was  ex- 
posed to  the  operation  of  the  drills.  The  high  embank- 
ment was  made  with  the  material  taken  out  of  the  tun- 
nel. The  western  approach  was  much  more  difficult,  a 
cut  having  to  be  excavated  through  earth  and  loose 
boulders  to  a  depth,  w  here  it  reached  the  tunnel  portal, 
of  fifty  feet.  The  heading  at  this  end  was  not  opened 
until  October  21,  1882.  To  facilitate  the  work  a  shn/*: 
was  sunk  whi.  h  struck  the  tunnel  level  700  feet  from  the 
west  portal  at  a  depth  o{  129  feet.  This  was  begun  May 
5,  1882,  and  reached  the  proper  depth  July  29,  1S82.  The 
west  drift  Irom  the  shaft  met  the  western  heading  De- 
cember 31,  1882. 

It  was  supposed  by  the  engineers  and  the  contractors 


410 


NORTIIEK.y  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


that  solid  rock  would  be  found  all  the  way  through  the 
mountain,  but  they  were  greatly  disappointed.  The  rork 
is  granite,  but  a  limestone  formation  lies  only  a  few  rods 
away,  and  the  interior  of  the  mountain  plainly  shows  evi- 
dence of  a  grinding  motion  which  has  broken  the  strata 
and  in  places  produced  seams  of  pulverized  granite  some- 
what resembling  blue  clay.  The  faces  of  the  rock  on 
each  side  of  these  streaks  are  worn  smooth,  as  though  they 
had  been  polished  by  a  lapidary's  wheel.  Seams  of  pure 
quartz  are  also  found,  and  pockets  lined  with  infiltrated 
crystals  traceable  to  the  adjoining  limestone  formation. 
After  the  tunnel  had  been  driven  700  feet  from  the  east 
portal,  the  rock  became  so  treacherous  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  timber  the  roof  and  sides.  This  was  done  with 
pine  and  fir  from  the  neighboring  mountain  sides,  the  up- 
right post  and  arch  pieces  being  twelve  by  twelve  inches, 
and  the  "  lagging  "  forming  the  sides  and  roof  being 
of  saplings  hewn  to  the  dimensions  of  four  by  four 
inches. 

After  60  feet  of  bad  rock  had  been  timbered  a  stretch 
of  150  feet  of  solid  rock  was  encountered,  followed  by 
another  bad  streak.  At  the  western  portal  it  was  neces- 
sary to  begin  timbering  at  onc^,  and  continue  for  200 
feet  ;  then  came  70  feet  of  hard  rock,  70  of  soft,  250  of 
hard,  and  then  a  mass  of  such  treacherous  material  that 
the  drillers  could  only  advance  foot  by  foot,  setting  up 
stakes  to  hold  the  roof,  and  roofing  the  heading  in  advance 
of  the  progress  of  the  bencii.  In  January,  1883,  water 
burst  into  the  east  heading,  carrying  away  the  temporary 
supports,  and  filling  the  tunnel  for  a  short  distance  with 
soft  material.  The  bad  character  of  the  rock  and  the  un- 
expected labor  involved  in  timbering  delayed  the  prog- 
ress of  the  tunnel,  and  it  is  not  finished  at  the  date  of  the 
issue  of  this  book.  The  elevation  of  the  Mullan  Tunnel 
above  the  sea  level  is  5,547  feet,  the  highest  point  being 


THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  DIVISION. 


411 


Dugh  the 
The  rork 
few  rods 
lows  evi- 
he  strata 
ite  some- 
rock  on 
ugh  they 
s  of  pure 
nfiltratecl 
)rmation. 
the  east 
as  neccs- 
one  with 
5,  the  up- 
e  inches, 
of  being 
by    four 

I  stretch 

owed  by 

IS  neccs- 

for  2CX) 

250  of 

ial  that 

ting  up 

idvance 

1,  water 

nporary 

cc  with 

the  un- 

e  prog- 

e  of  the 

Tunnel 

t  being 


at  the  western  approach.  The  elevation  of  the  Mullan 
Pass  at  the  dividing  ridge  is  5,855  feet.  The  tunnel  is 
3,850  feet  long.  Its  dimensions  are  eighteen  by  twenty- 
three  feet. 

From  Helena  the  railroad  first  follows  the  narrow  val- 
ley of  Seven-Mile  Creek,  and  then  the  narrower  gorge  of 
Greenhorn  Gulch  up  to  the  pass.  The  mountain  grades 
begin  three  miles  west  of  Helena,  but  are  only  sixty  feet 
to  the  mile  for  four  miles  further,  when  the  standard 
heavy  grade  of  1 16  is  employed  up  to  the  east  portal. 
Through  the  tunnel  the  grade  is  104.  There  are  no 
heavy  grades  on  the  western  side  of  the  mountain,  that 
approaching  the  tunnel  being  only  seventy-four  feet.  In 
order  to  make  the  ascent  required  to  reach  the  east 
entrance  to  the  tunnel,  the  track  makes  two  long 
loops  forming  a  lette"-  S.  The  longest  of  these  is  three 
miles,  in  which  only  three-fourths  of  a  mile  distance  is 
gained,  but  the  elevation  gained  is  302  feet.  A  short 
tunnel  533  feet  long,  called  the  Iron  Ridge  Tunnel,  takes 
the  road  through  a  mountain  spur.  This  was  driven 
through  yellow  limestone  rock,  and  is  timbered  for  its 
entire  length. 

The  entire  distance  covered  by  heavy  grades  in  crossing 
the  Mullan  Pass  is  only  six  miles,  and  at  no  point  is  the 
limit  of  116  feet  to  the  mile  prescribed  by  law  exceeded. 
At  both  the  Mullan  and  Bozeman  passes  the  policy  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  engineers  was  to  concentrate  the 
resistance  of  heavy  grades  in  as  short  a  distance  as  was 
feasible  within  the  prescribed  limitation  of  grade,  in  order 
that  the  application  of  extra  power  to  overcome  such 
resistance  might  be  made  on  a  few  miles  only  of  road  and 
the  usual  operating  methods  speedily  resumed.  By  this 
plan  the  entire  length  of  heavy  grades,  ascending  and  de- 
scending, over  the  Bozem;in  and  Mullan  summits  and  the 
third  high   summit   in   the  Corsican   defile   beyond   Mis- 


412 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


soula,  described  in  the  following  chapter,  is  reduced  to 
iibout  eighteen  miles. 

The  aspect  of  the  Main  Divide  of  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains, when  approached  from  the  west,  is  very  different 
from  that  presented  by  the  eastern  slope.  Instead  of 
towering  crags,  gigantic  walls  of  granite,  precipitous 
ascents  and  deep  ravines,  the  eye  encounters  only  gentle 
slopes  covered  in  the  spring  and  early  summer  with  a 
luxuriant  growth  of  grass  and  flowers,  broad  natural 
meadows,  through  which  flow  swift  streams,  and  belts  of 
evergreen  forests.  It  is  diflicult  to  realize,  when  emerg- 
ing from  the  western  portal  of  the  MuUan  Tunr.el,  that 
one  is  on  the  summit  of  the  great  water-shed  mountain 
range  of  the  American  continent.  Only  a  few  miles  west 
of  the  tunnel  the  railroad  resumes  its  standard  grade  of 
one  foot  to  the  hundred,  and  follows  the  course  of  the 
Little  Blackfoot  River  down  into  the  deep  valley  of  a 
stream  .vhich  bears  many  names  in  different  parts  of  its 
course,  and  is  here  called  the  Hell  Gate.  This  fine  river, 
heading  in  the  mountains  near  Butte,  is  first  called  the 
Silver  Bow,  then  the  Deer  Lodge,  then  the  Hell  Gate, 
then  the  Missoula  and  finally  Clark's  Fork  of  the  Co- 
lumbia. 

Thus  far  in  the  description  of  the  road  we  have  fol- 
lowed the  line  from  east  to  west,  in  the  order  of  its  con- 
struction, division  by  division.  From  Wallula,  on  the 
Columbia  River,  to  the  valley  of  the  Little  Blackfoot,  the 
road  was  built  from  west  to  cast,  the  point  of  junction  of 
the  tracks  advancing  from  the  two  sides  of  the  Continent 
being  a  few  miles  west  of  the  Mullan  Tunnel.  The 
reader  is  now  asked  to  turn  to  the  valley  of  the  Colum- 
bia at  Wallula,  the  place  selected  for  a  junction  with  the 
main  line  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Com- 
pany, and  follow  the  progress  of  the  road  across  the  plains 
of  Eastern  Washington  and  up  the  valleys  of  the  Clark's 


THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  DIVISION. 


413 


Fork,  the  Flathead,  the  Jocko  and  the  Hell  Gate  to  the 
western  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  construction   of  the   Pend  d'Oreille  Division  was 
determined  upon  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Board,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  historical  part  of  this  work,  in  the  spring  of  1 879. 
Itbegins  at  VVallula,  and  extends  in  ageneral  north-easterly 
direction  to  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille,  and   thence  around  the 
Lake  and  up  the  Clark's  Fork  to  Heron,  a  distance  of  269.^ 
miles.     The  maximum  grade  going  east  is  52  feet  to  the 
mile,  and  going  west  34  feet,  and  the  line  is  characterized 
by  directness  as  well  as  by  easy  grades,  there  being  in  200 
miles    of  distance   150  of  tangents.     Construction  work 
necessarily  began   at    the  western   end    of  the   division, 
where  the  Columbia   River  served   as  a  base  of  supplies. 
There  were  at   that  time  no   settlements  along  the  sur- 
veyed route  of  the  road,  save  a  trading  poi,t  at   Spokane 
Falls.     The  country  i?^  for  the  most   part  a  grassy  plain, 
except  near  the  Columbia,  where  there  is  a  small  area  of 
sage-brush  desert,  and  no  timber  is  found  until  the  vicinity 
of  the  lake  is  reached.     A  little  grading  was  done  in  the 
fall  of  1879,  t)"t   operations  were  not  vigorously  begun 
until  early  in   1880.     During  that  year  the  grading  was 
completed  from  Wallula  as  far  eastward  as  Rathdrun,  189 
miles,  and  track  was  laid  from  Wallula  to  the  south  bank 
of  the  Snake   River,  and  from  Ainsworth,  on  the  north 
bank    of  that    stream,  48   miles    further,  to  Twin  Wells. 
At  the  close  of  the  season  the  grade  was  124  miles  in  ad- 
vance of  the  track  ;  an  unusual  thing  in  railroad  building 
in  a  new  country,  where  the  advancing  track  is  the  only 
base  of  supplies.     This   circumstance    resulted  from   the 
delay  in  procuring  ties  and  bridge  timber.     The  country 
traversed  by  the  line  was  bare  of  trees,  and  the  nearest 
available  forests  were   on   the  Yakima   River,  a  stream 
which  empties  into   the  Columbia  above  the  mouth  of 
Snake  River.     Parties  of  workmen  were  sent  up  into  the 


w 


414 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


foothills  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  in  the  winter  of  1879- 
80,  to  cut  ties,  piles,  and  bridge  timber,  ready  to  be 
floated  down  the  Yakima  in  the  spring  freshet.  The 
"drive,"  for  some  reason,  did  not  come  down,  and  was 
left  stranded  up  the  river,  so  that  there  were  no  ties  all 
the  summer  of  1880,  and  supplies  for  the  grading  camps 
had  to  be  hauled  in  wagons.  In  the  spring  of  1881  the 
"  drive  "  was  got  afloat,  and  came  rushing  down  pell-mell, 
on  top  of  a  powerful  freshet,  which  broke  the  booms,  and 
scattered  ties  and  timbers  all  down  the  Columbia  River. 
Much  of  the  material  was  picked  up,  but  a  portion  was 
carried  out  to  sea.  Enough  was  saved  to  complete  the 
track  to  the  forest  region  east  of  Spokane  Falls,  where 
there  was  no  lack  of  good  timber  for  railroad  uses.  The 
track  reached  the  shore  of  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  January 
9th,  1882. 

The  crossing  of  Snake  River  at  Ainsworth  is  at  present 
effected  by  a  transfer  boat  which  carries  an  entire  passen- 
ger train.  A  bridge  is  in  process  of  construction,  how- 
ever, and  will  be  completed  before  the  high-water  season 
of  1884,  and,  next  to  the  Bismarck  bridge  over  the  Mis- 
souri River,  will  be  the  most  important  structure  of  the 
kind  on  the  entire  Northern  Pacific  line.  Its  length  is 
1,541  feet,  and  it  is  composed  of  a  span  of  125  feet,  a  draw 
span  of  350  feet,  with  158  feet  of  clear  waterway  on  each 
side  of  the  pivot  pier,  three  spans  of  250  feet  each,  and 
two  spans  of  158  feet  each.  The  piers  are  of  granite,  and 
are  seven  in  number,  including  the  pivot  pier,  their  aver- 
age height  being  sixty-two  feet.  They  rest  on  a  solid 
rock  foundation.  All  were  built  in  open  caissons  except 
two,  for  which  pneumatic  caissons  were  required.  The 
abutments  are  also  of  granite,  and  are  forty-three  feet 
high.  The  superstructure  is  an  iron  truss  of  the  most  ap- 
proved pattern,  the  lower  line  of  which  is  twelve  feet 
above  the  extreme  known  high-water  mark.     The  Spo- 


THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  DIVISION. 


415 


kane  River  is  crossed  east  of  the  town  of  Spokane  Falls 
by  a  single  span  Howe  truss  bridge  200  feet  long,  with  an 
open  truss  approach  on  either  side  sixty  feet  long.  As 
the  railroad  approaches  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  from  the 
west,  the  country  becomes  broken  with  ridges  and  deep 
ravines,  and  much  trestle  and  piling  is  required.  Within 
three  miles  of  the  lake  there  are  three  trestles — one  2,000 
feet  long,  one  1,400  feet,  and  one  1,300  feet.  Then  comes 
the  long  pile  bridge  across  an  arm  of  the  lake  to  Sand 
Point,  the  end  of  the  division,  which  is  8,400  feet  long, 
with  a  draw  of  ninety-four  feet.  Six  hundred  feet  of  this 
structure  runs  across  such  deep  water  that  piles  of  from 
90  to  100  feet  in  length  are  required. 

During  the  construction  operations  the  portion  of  the 
road  between  Sand  Point  on  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille,  and  the 
crossing  of  the  Flathead  River,  seven  miles  above  the 
junction  of  that  stream  with  the  Missoula  (the  two  forming 
the  Clark's  Fork  or  Pend  d'Oreille),  a  dista  :e  of  1 30  miles, 
was  called  the  Clark's  Fork  Division.  Ir.  was  by  far  the 
most  difficult  division  to  construct  of  the  entire  Northern 
Pacific  line,  and  much  the  most  expensive.  For  its  whole 
length  it  traverses  a  forest,  and  save  for  a  few  miles  on 
the  eastern  end,  where  the  timber  growth  is  open  and 
park-like,  this  forest  is  of  phenomenal  density,  the  trees 
standing  so  close  together  that  they  seem  almost  to  form 
a  solid  rampart  of  trunks.  Pine,  fur,  spruce,  cedar,  and 
tamarack  constitute  this  remarkable  growth.  A  thick 
undergrowth  covers  the  ground,  and  the  interlaced 
branches  overhead  make  a  sombre  twilight  of  the  bright- 
est noonday  glare.  The  forest  was  but  one  of  the  obsta- 
cles to  railway  building,  however.  No  valley  proper  is 
formed  by  the  river,  which  flows  for  about  a  hundred 
miles  through  a  tremendous  gorge.  Tl\e  mountains  rise 
abruptly  from  the  edge  of  the  swift  green  stream,  in  some 
places  in  towering  walls  of  slate  rock,  in  others  in  exceed- 


4i6 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


ingly  steep  timbered  slopes.  Here  and  there  in  the  caflon 
elevated  benches  of  a  few  miles  in  length  occur,  which 
were  eagerly  occupied  by  the  engineers  as  welcome 
respites  to  the  enormous  labor  of  digging  and  blasting  a 
roadbed  out  of  rocky  walls  or  precipitous  and  treach- 
erous slopes ;  but  a  considerable  part  of  the  line  is  stcej^ 
side-hill  work  or  blasting  through  places  where  the  mount- 
ains thrust  bare  shoulders  of  rock  into  the  river. 

The  management  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company 
had  been  changed  in  September,  i88i,  by  the  accession  of 
Mr.  Villard  to  the  presidency.  Mr.  H.  Thielsen,  the  chief 
engineer  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Com- 
pany, became  supervising  engineer  of  the  Clark's  Fork 
Division,  and  the  work,  instead  of  being  let  by  contract, 
was  done  by  the  Company  under  the  charge  of  a  super- 
intendent of  construction,  Mr.  J.  L.  Hallett.  Chinese 
labor,  the  only  kind  obtainable  in  large  quantity  on  the 
Pacific  slope,  was  employed  in  the  clearing  of  the  line  and 
the  grading. 

Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  may  be  said  to  be  a  widening 
of  Clark's  Fork.  After  passing  around  it  on  the  north 
to  avoid  the  high  and  precipitous  mountains  on  th^ 
western  side,  the  railroad  runs  through  a  forest  of  fir 
and  cedar  for  twenty-four  miles,  crossing,  by  a  pile  bridge 
lOO  feet  long,  a  bay  into  which  flows  Pack  River,  and 
coming  to  the  Clark's  Fork  four  miles  above  its  entrance 
to  the  lake.  Most  of  the  work  through  the  woods  and 
swamp  along  the  lake  shore  was  done  in  the  winter  of 
1881-2,  in  spite  of  heavy  snow-falls.  Thousands  of  men 
were  engaged  at  times  in  shoveling  the  snow  from  the 
line  in  order  that  the  grading  and  track-laying  might  pro- 
ceed. As  soon  as  the  opening  of  spiing  brought  welcome 
relief  from  the  snow  troubles,  high  water  on  the  river  be- 
came an  obstacle  to  the  building  of  bridges,  and  the 
wagon  road   which  had  been  built   at   great  labor  and 


THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  DIVISION. 


417 


thecaflon 
ur,  which 
welcome 
)lasting  a 
d  treach- 
e  is  steep 
e  mount- 


company 
:ession  of 
the  chief 
on  Com- 
k's  Fork 
contract, 
'a  super- 
Chinese 
Y  on  the 
iline  and 

ividening 
le  north 
I  on  tli^ 
;st  of  fir 
le  bridge 
iver,  and 
entrance 
ods  and 
-'inter  of 
!  of  men 
rom  the 
ght  pro- 
velcomc 
■iver  be- 
ind    the 
bor  and 


expense  to  transport  supplies  to  the  grading  camps  got 
into  such  a  bad  condition  that  four  horses  could  barely 
draw  a  load  of  one  thousand  pounds,  and  most  of  the  ani- 
mals had  to  be  withdrawn  for  a  time  from  work  on  the 
grade  to  haul  food  and  forage.  Great  assistance  was  ob- 
tained from  a  little  steamer  built  oon  the  lake  and  named 
the  Henry  Villard,  but  this  co  i..  •<'/  run  about  twelve 
miles  up  the  river,  owing  to  the  obstacle  of  the  Cabinet 
Rapids.  A  second  steamer  was  put  upon  the  river  above 
the  Rock  Island  Rapids,  in  the  summer  of  1882,  the  hull 
having  been  built  on  the  spot,  and  the  machinery  at  the 
Dalles,  in  Oregon  ;  but  an  error  of  the  builders  made  her 
draft  too  great  for  her  to  be  of  service  at  a  low  stage  of 
water.  It  should  be  remarked  that  no  wagon  road  existed 
in  the  Clark's  Fork  gorge  until  the  Railroad  Company  con. 
structed  one  as  an  essential  preliminary  to  building  its 
line,  the  only  means  of  getting  through  the  country  hav- 
ing been  a  rude  bridle-path  traveled  by  Indians,  fur-trad- 
ers and  gold-seekers,  over  which  pack  animals  could  be 
got  with  no  small  difficulty  at  a  rate  of  progress  of  twelve 
or  fifteen  miles  aday ;  and  this  trail  was  not  on  the  side  of 
the  river  followed  by  the  road,  where  the  work  was  most 
serious. 

The  bridge  at  the  first  crossing  of  Clark's  Fork  is  a  five- 
span  Howe  truss,  800  feet  long,  with  a  trestle  approach  of 
600  feet.  The  river  is  crossed  again,  fifty  miles  further 
up,  by  a  Howe  truss  bridge  of  three  spans,  480  feet  long 
in  all  and  ninety  feet  above  the  river,  approached  by  600 
feet  of  trestle;  and  a  third  time,  seven  miles  above  the 
junction  of  the  Flathead  and  Missoula,  by  750  feet  of 
truss  with  300  of  trestle  approach.  The  purpose  of  the  first 
and  second  crossings  is  to  avoid  the  Blue  Slide,  an  immense 
sliding  mass  of  clay  1,000  feet  high,  and  impossible  to  pass 
with  a  railroad. 

In  the  rock  work  Mr.  Hallett  employed  a  method  new 
27 


4i8 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


in  railroad  construction,  wliich  he  had  first  successfully 
used  on  the  Columbia  River  line.  The  old  way  of  cutting 
a  roadbed  along  the  face  of  w.  cliff  was  to  begin  at  the  top, 
drill  small  lioles  and  blow  off  the  rock,  little  by  little,  down 
to  grade.  Mr.  Hallett  began  at  the  bottom,  a  little  below 
grade,  made  a  number  of  T-shapcd  tunnels,  filled  them 
with  great  quantities  of  powder,  and  touched  them  all  off 
at  the  same  moment  by  electricity.  The  effect  was  stu- 
pendous, the  whole  side  of  the  mountain  wall  being  lifted 
up  and  hurled  into  the  river.  Great  saving  in  time  and 
money  was  thus  effected.  A  similar  method  was  applied 
to  through  cuts  by  means  of  perpendicular  shafts  and 
lateral  galleries.  One  cut  24  feet  deep  by  400  feet  long 
was  excavated  by  a  single  blast  of  giant  powder,  most  of 
the  rock  being  thrown  entirely  out,  and  the  rest  so 
broken  up  that  it  was  readily  removed  by  derricks. 

Between  the  first  and  second  crossings  the  road  passes 
through  extensive  clay  deposits  for  a  distance  of  about 
forty  miles,  known  by  early  travelers  as  the  Bad  Lands. 
These  gave  great  trouble  to  the  construction  force  by 
heavy  slides.  One  of  these  slides  was  probably  unrivaled 
in  its  extent  and  suddenness  by  anything  known  in  the 
history  of  railway  building.  In  April,  1883,  a  surface  area 
of  forty  acres,  covered  with  trees,  slid  off  into  the  river, 
carrying  the  track  with  it,  and  partially  obstructing  the 
river.  The  track  sunk  down  to  a  depth  of  sixty  feet  be- 
low the  grade,  and  a  chasm  was  opened  1,300  feet  in 
length.  The  mode  adopted  where  slides  filled  up  cuts 
was  to  reopen  the  cuts  with  steam  excavators  and  then 
drive  a  line  of  piles  twelve  feet  from  the  centre  of  the 
track  and  four  feet  apart,  cut  them  off  six  feet  above  the 
track,  cap  them,  and  make  a  wall  of  logs  behind  them  to 
hold  up  the  clay  slopes. 

The  grading  on  the  portion  of  the  line  between  the 
bridge  over   the  Flathead   River   known  as   the  "  third 


THE  ROCKY  MO Uy TAIN  DIVISION. 


419 


crossing,"  and  the  Mullan  Tunndl,  about  200  miles,  was 
done  in  1882  by  Mormons  from  the  settlements  in 
Northern  Utah,  wiio  came  with  their  families  and  teams 
and  took  sub-contracts  on  the  road.  They  proved  an 
excellent  clas;,  01  laborers,  and  coming  as  they  did  into 
the  gap  between  the  eastern  and  western  divisions  of 
the  railroad,  where  workmen  could  not,  without  con- 
siderable difficulty  and  heavy  expense,  be  thrown  in, 
either  from  the  Pacific  slope  or  from  the  East,  their  serv- 
ices were  of  great  value.  In  the  building  of  the  road 
across  the  Flathead  reservation,  a  distance  of  about  60 
miles,  their  sobriety  and  general  good  behavior  prevented 
trouble  with  the  Indians.  Right  of  way  across  this  reser- 
vation was  obtained  after  negotiations  conducted  by  a 
Government  commissioner  with  the  chiefs  of  the  Flat- 
head, Kootenai  and  Pend  d'Oreille  tribes,  occupying  the 
reservation,  on  payment  by  the  Railroad  Company  of 
$5,000. 

Leaving  the  valley  of  the  Flathea  1  near  the  third 
crossing  the  road  follows  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Jocko 
and  then  the  course  of  Findlay  Creek  up  to  the  summit 
of  a  spur  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  For  the  ascent  and 
descent  the  mountain  grade  of  116  feet  to  the  mile  is 
adopted,  the  entire  length  of  heavy  grade  being  13  miles. 
The  sum.mit  is  nearly  level  for  3  miles.  The  descent  is 
through  a  deep  narrow  gorge  known  as  the  Coriacan  De- 
file. At  the  eastern  entrance  to  the  Coriacan  Defile  is 
a  trestle  known  as  the  O'Kcefe  trestle;,  112  feet  high,  and 
1,000  feet  long.  A  still  more  formidable  trestle  crosses 
the  Marent  Gulch  in  the  defile.  It  is  226  feet  high  and 
860  feet  long,  and  is  one  of  the  highest  bridges  in  the 
United  States.  The  stream  that  comes  down  the  gulch  is 
of  inconsiderable  size,  but  the  gulch  itself  is  a  deep  gorge, 
and  the  grade  of  the  road,  carried  high  up  on  the  steep 
mountain  sides  to  attain  the  summit  of  the  pass,  crosses  it 


r^i 


420 


NOHrj/EKX  PACU-IC  RAILROAD. 


at  the  great  height  mentioned.  The  superstructure  of 
this  remarkable  bridge  is  a  Howe  truss  resting  on  eight 
towers. 

It  would  have  been  practicable  to  avoid  crossing  the 
mountain  spur  by  following  the  Missoula  River  up  from 
its  confluence  with  the  Flathead,  but  the  alternate  route 
was  never  seriously  contemplated  after  the  country  had 
been  examined  by  Chief  Engineer  Roberts  in  1S69,  be- 
cause of  the  long  detour  made  by  the  stream,  which  would 
have  added  about  thirty  miles  to  the  length  of  the  road 
between  the  town  of  Missoula  and  the  junction  of  the  two 
rivers. 

From  the  town  of  Missoula  to  the  mouth  of  the  Little 
Blackfoot  River,  a  distance  of  75  miles,  the  railroad  follows 
the  course  of  the  Hell  Gate  River,  which  runs  through 
a  narrow  valley  hemmed  in  on  either  hand  by  steep  moun- 
tain ranges.  The  valley  makes  an  admirable  route  for  a 
railroad.  On  one  side  or  the  other  there  is  always  a  con- 
siderable stretch  of  level  bottom  land.  The  engineering 
problems  on  this  part  of  the  Northern  Pacific  line  con- 
cerned first,  the  management  of  Gold  Creek,  the  pioneer 
placer  mining  stream  of  Montana,  on  which  considerable 
hydraulic  mining  is  still  done  and  which  carries  down  to 
its  mouth  larg"  quantities  of  "  tailings."  The  mouth  of 
the  stP^am  was  narrowed  by  two  dikes,  so  as  to  be  easily 
crossed  by  a  short  bridge.  Next  there  was  the  question 
whether  to  bridge  the  river  where  it  shifts  from  side 
to  side  or  to  keep  the  road  on  one  side  and  cut  a 
roadbed  out  of  the  bluffs,  as  was  done  on  the  Yellow- 
stone. This  was  decided  in  favor  of  bridges — a  safe 
decision,  because  the  stream,  fed  by  the  gradual  melting 
of  the  snows  on  the  high  mountain  ranges,  rises  steadily 
and  is  not  subject  to  sudden  freshets,  its  high-water 
mark  varying  but  a  few  inches  from  year  to  year.  At 
two  points  bridges  were  avoided  by  cutting  new  channels 


THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAIX  D/l'IS/OJV. 


421 


for  the  river  so  as  to  straighten  its  course  and  throwing 
dikes  of  piles,  brush  and  rock  across  the  old  channel. 
Between  the  Little  Blackfoot  and  Missoula  the  river  is 
crossed  ten  times,  the  largest  bridge  having  two  spans  of 
220  feet  each.  There  is  also  a  long  bridge  across  the 
mouth  of  Bear  Creek,  having  four  spans  of  66  feet 
each.  All  these  bridges  are  wooden  truss  structures 
built  from  the  timber  of  the  adjacent  country  and  resting 
on  cribs  of  plank  filled  with  stone.  They  will  be  replaced 
in  time  by  durable  iron  bridges.  The  line  through  the 
Hell  Gate  Cafion  is  a  low  embankment  for  nearly  its 
entire  length,  and  having  no  cuts  will  not  be  obstructed 
by  snow,  which  falls  to  a  considerable  depth  in  the 
valley. 


'.  ¥i 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

TIIK   COLUMBIA  KIVLR    LINE  AND    I'ACinC  AND   CASCADK 

DIVISIONS. 

The  Colip-.iuia  River  Line  of  the  Oicj^on  Railway  and  Navigalidii  Com- 
pany— Its  Relations  to  tlic  No'-'Jicrn  I'acific  System — A  Roailljcd  jjlasteil 
fiDiii  liic  I'ac;  of  ric(li)iccs--I'iny  'riiousaiul  rounds  of  I'owdci  uset!  in 
a  Single  IJlast — Otli  .'r  I,ine?>  •  i  tl.e  Oroqon  Railway  and  Navigation 
System — The  I'acific  I"''v'';un  of  the  Nort  icrii  Pacilk  Com|)any — Fi(jm 
I'oilland  to  I'nget  Sound — l''irst  Constructi.jn  Operations  on  the  I'r.cifie 
Coast  —  The  Ca^eade  Division — An  Impcttant  Coal  Road — W.  Milnoi 
Roberts'  Report  on  IJuilding  aeross  llie  Cascade  Mountains — The  Seattle 
Extension. 

TlllC  Columbia  River  line  of  the  Oregon  Railway  am! 
Navic^ation  Company  may  bo  regarded  as  one  of  the 
links  of  the  Northern  Pacific  transcontinental  system. 
Although  ownetl  by  a  separate  comi)an\',  its  general 
management  is  identical  'vith  that  of  the  Northern  Pr.cific, 
the  presi^icnt  of  botl\  companies  being  Henry  Villard,  and 
a  controlling  intert.st  in  the  stock  o^  both  being  held  by 
the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental  Company,  a  permanent 
harmony  and  close  alliance  are  assured.  The  Nortiicrn 
Pacific  lias  the  right  under  its  charter  to  build  a  line  of 
its  own  down  the  Columbia  to  Portland,  but  the  prior 
construction  of  the  river  road  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  Companw  aiKJ  the  unity  of  interest  and  direc- 
tion effected  by  Mr.  Villard,  relieved  it  from  the  necessity 
of  building  such  a  line  at  a  time  when  all  its  resources 
and  energies  were  demanded  for  completing  its  roail  and 
joining  its  tracks  in  Montana.  The  question  of  building 
a  second  line  down  the  Columbia  was  left  open  until  the 
Northern  Pacific  could  wiseh',  in  the  liiilit  of  its  financial 


m 


Glaciers  u(  Muiint  Tacoma. 


'Imq 


COLUMBIA    RIVER  LINE  AND  PACIEIC  DIVISIONS.  423 


resources,  decide  it  affirmatively.     Such  a  line  following 
the  north  bank  of  the  river  is  now  under  construction. 

From  Wallula,  where  the  Pcnd  d'Oreille  Division  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  joins  the  main  line  of  the  Oregon 
Railway  ond  Navigation  Company,  the  distance  to  Port- 
land is  214  miles,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  forty 
miles, •the  railroad  runs  for  the  whole  way  in  the  narrow 
gorge  of  the  Columbia,  cutting  through  the  steep  basaltic 
cliffs,  and  crossing  on  trestles  the  numerous  ravines 
which  serve  as  channels  for  the  smaller  stveams.  The 
heaviest  work  is  between  the  Dalles  and  Bonneville,  a 
distance  of  forty-five  miles,  where  the  river  has  forced  its 
way  through  the  tremendous  barrier  of  the  Cascade 
Mountains.  In  many  places  on  this  portion  of  the  line 
the  mountains  rise  in  sheer  precipices  from  the  water's 
edge.  The  roadbed  had  to  be  blasted  out  v>{  the  Hice  of 
the  lofty  walls,  and  the  workmen  were  .sus])cnded  by 
ropes  from  the  summits  of  the  cliffs  while  drilling  for  the 
first  blasts.  Enormous  quantities  of  powder  were  used 
in  single  blasts  to  throw  down  great  masses  of  rock  into 
the  river.  The  largest  quantit)-  (  xploded  at  one  time 
was  1,000  cases  of  fifty  pounds  each,  v.hich  was  placed  in 
drifts  run  into  the  face  of  the  cliff  above  tunnel  No.  3. 
The  drifts  were  from  50  to  75  feet  long,  with  lateral 
chambers  at  the  end  of  each,  and  were  150  feet  apart. 
The  cliff  had  a  vertical  height  of  450  feet  above  the  river, 
and  at  its  base  the  water  was  125  feet  deep.  The  powder 
in  the  drifts  was  fireil  at  the  same  moment  by  electrical 
sparks,  and  the  whole  face  of  the  cliff  was  thrown  into 
the  river.  A  shot  fired  at  another  point  on  the  river  u  as 
even  more  successful  in  regard  to  the  quantity  of  rock 
displaced.  IIi;re  the  track  had  already  been  laid  around 
a  shelving  bluff,  but  there  was  so  much  trouble  from 
slides  that  a  remedy  was  sought  by  blowing  off  the 
shoulder  of  t'leslopin^^  mountain.     Drifts  were  run  in  fur 


424 


NORTHERX  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


123  feet,  at  an  elevation  of  470  feet  above  the  track,  a 
footpath  first  beinj^  cut  around  the  cliff  for  the  laborers. 
The  powder  and  the  material  for  tampincj  the  drift  were 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  along  a  line  of  men  stationed 
on  this  dizzy  path.  The  amount  of  powder  used  was 
470  fifty-pound  case?,  and  the  blast  threw  down  140,000 
cubic  yards  of  rock.  * 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  there  is  an  equal 
mileage  of  railroad  anywhere  in  the  United  States,  the 
building  of  which  involved  as  much  labor  as  that  from 
the  Dalles  to  Bonneville,  at  the  foot  of  the  Lower  Cas- 
cades of  the  Columbia.  No  bottom-lands  arc  found  along 
the  river  in  the  entire  distance,  and  where  the  road  is 
not  cut  out  from  the  mountain-sides  or  from  lofty  basal- 
tic escarpments,  it  runs  across  profound  ravines,  where 
high  embankments  or  trestles  are  required.  There  are 
eight  and  a  quarter  miles  of  trestle  on  this  part  of  the 
line,  much  of  which  will,  however,  be  replaced  by  embank- 
ments. Hetween  the  Dilles  and  Wallula  the  work  is 
much  lighter.  Although  many  bluffs  are  cut  tin'ough, 
there  are  numerous  long  benches  or  stretches  of  bottom 
land  between  the  bluffs  and  ^*,e  river.  Helow  Bonneville 
the  road  leaves  the  river  and  rims  across  the  level  delta 
formetl  by  the  Willamette  and  the  Columbia. 

Construction  began  on  this  line  in  1880  between  Wal- 
lula and  Cclilo  under  the  direction  of  chief  engineer  II. 
Thielsen.  In  the  fall  of  1881  the  grade  was  completed 
as  far  down  as  Bonneville,  and  track-laying  was  finished 
so  th.'t-  the  road  was  operated  to  Bonneville  in  the  spring 
of  1882.  The  remaining  section  of  the  line,  from  Bonne- 
ville to  Portland,  was  opened  in  October  of  that  year. 

In  this  connection  a  few  words  may  properly  be  said 
concerning  other  lines  built  by  the  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  Company  as  a  part  of  tiie  efficient  transporta- 
tion system   it   has  established   in    the   State  of  Oregon. 


COLUMBIA   RIVER  LINE   AXD   PACIEIC  DiriSIOXS.  425 


From   Umatilla,  209  miles  above  Portland,  a  branch  road 
leaves  the  Columbia,  traverses  the  fertile  wheat-producing 
plains  of  Umatilla  County,  crosses  the  lilue  Mountains  to 
the  beautiful  grain  and  grazing  valleyoftheGrande  Ronde, 
reaches  the   Powder  River  Valley  and   the   mining  dis- 
tricts around  Baker  City,  and  will  finally  effect  a  junction 
with  the  Oregon  Short  Line  brarch  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad   at  the  Snake    River.      This  line  is   now  open 
to  the  Blue  Mountains,  and  will  be  finished  in  1884.     The 
main  line  continues  eastward  above  Wallula,  where  it  joins 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  to  Walla  Walla,  the  most 
important   town    in   the   great    interior   basin  of  Oregon 
and   Washincrton.      From   that   town   there    is  a  branch 
south  to  Pendleton,  46  miles,  one  north   to   Riparia   37 
miles,  whence  steamboats  belonging  to  the  Company  run 
up  the   Snake  River  to   Lewiston  '^'i   miles,  and  diverg- 
ing from  this  branch  at  liolles  J  unction,  a  line  to  Dayton,  13 
miles,  soon  to  be  extended  to  Pataha  City,  37  miles  further. 
This  system  of  railroads,  supplemented  by  steamboats  on 
the  Columbia  and  Snake  Rivers,  tirains  all  the  rich,  newly 
developed  wheat  and  cattle  country  I\ing  south  of  Snake 
River,  between  the  Bitter  Root  and  Blue  Mountains,  on 
the   east   and  south,  and   the  Cascade  Mou«itains  on   the 
west. 

THK    rACII'IC    DIVISION. 

The  railroad  line  from  Portland  to  Pugct  Sound  belongs 
to  the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  and  is  called  the  Pacific 
Division.  It  is  linked,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  main  line 
at  W^dlula  bN'  the  river  road  of  the  Oregon  Railwav  and 
Navigation  Company.  The  section  of  the  Sound  line  im- 
mediately west  of  Portland  will  be  finished  this  summer 
(18S3).  It  follows  the  Willamette  River  to  its  mouth, 
and  then  the  Columbia  to  i  crossing  place  about  two 
miles  above  a  point  opposite  the  town   of   Kalama  and 


426 


NORTHERN  PACIIIC  RAILROAD. 


about   forty  miles    from   Portland,   where  trainr,  will  be 
ferried  over  the  Columbia  on  a  large  transfer  steamer. 

The  line  from  Kalama  to  Tacoma,  on  Puget  Sound,  is, 
next  to  the  Minnesota  Division,  the  oldest  portion  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  road.  The  Act  of  Congress  of  1870, 
amending  the  charter  of  the  Company  and  making  the 
line  down  the  Cc^lumbia  to  Portland  and  thence  to  the 
Sound  the  main  line,  and  that  across  the  Cascade  Mount- 
ains to  the  Sound  a  branch,  provided  that  twenty-five 
miles  of  road  between  the  Columbia  River  and  tlie  Sound 
should  be  built  within  a  year  from  the  date  of  its  passage, 
and  that  the  whole  road  should  be  opened  to  its  terminus 
on  the  Sound  before  the  close  of  1873.  In  obedience 
to  these  provisions  of  law,  the  Company  began  to  build,  in 
April,  1 87 1,  from  Kalama,  a  new  town  on  the  Columbia 
nine  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Cowlitz  River.  There 
was  no  question  as  to  the  route  to  be  adopted  to  reach 
the  .Sound.  Nature  seemed  to  have  marked  out  the  val- 
ley of  the  Cowlitz  as  an  easy  route  for  railroad  construc- 
tion. This  was  the  route  followed  by  General  (then 
Cap^nu)  McClellan  in  the  prosecution  of  the  Govern- 
ment surveys  in  1853,  and  it  was  in  1871  the  route  of  the 
wagon  and  mail  road  leading  from  tiie  Columbia  Ri\er 
to  01ym[)ia,  the  head  of  navigation  on  tlie  Sound,  and 
the  capital  of  Washingion  Territor}'.  The  surveyed  line 
of  the  railroad  followed  the  Cowlitz  for  about  forty  miles, 
crossed  a  low  divide  to  a  tributary  of  the  Niscjually 
River,  which  flows  into  Gray's  Harbor  on  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  then  crossed  a  second  diviile  to  the  Nis(|ualiy, 
and  then  ran  across  level  gravelly  prairies  until  nciU  the 
Sound,  when  it  ran  down  to  the  level  of  the  tide  at  Com- 
mencement Bay,  by  a  sliarp  descent.  There  are  no  grailes 
on  the  line  greater  than  fifty-two  feet  to  the  mile  save  for 
two  miles  uj)  from  the  Sound,  where  the  heavy  grade  of 
116  feet  to  the  mile  was  adopted.     An  easier  grade  will 


COLUMBIA   RIVER  LINE  AND  PACIFIC  DIVISIONS.  427 

soon  be  secured  at  tliat  point.  The  Cowlitz  and  the  Nis- 
qually  arc  crossed  by  wooden  truss  bridges.  No  heavy 
cuts  or  higli  embankments  occur,  and  tlic  line  was  in  all 
respects  an  easy  one  to  build,  except  the  clearing  of  the 
dense  forest  growth  which  covered  the  face  of  the  country 
for  nearly  the  entire  distance.  It  was  made  expensive, 
however,  by  the  high  cost  of  labor  and  supplies,  and  the 
necessity  of  transporting  iron,  locomc^tives  and  cars  over 
the  long  sea  route  around  Cape  Morn. 

Only  twenty-five  miles  of  the  division  were  built  in  1 871. 
Next  year  fifty  miles  more  were  constructed.  Work  was 
begun  anew  in  the  spring  of  1873,  but  the  collapse  of  that 
year  found  the  road  still  twenty-two  miles  from  its  ter- 
minus at  Tacoma,  on  the  Sound.  For  a  short  time  work 
was  continueil  without  interruption,  but  there  was  no 
money  to  pay  the  laborers,  and  after  ten  miles  more  of 
track  had  been  laid  the  men  took  armeil  possession  of  a 
bridge  across  Clover  Creek,  and  declared  that  the  road 
should  go  no  further  until  they  got  $73,000  th<.Mi  due 
them.  In  tliis  emergency  Capt.  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  then 
managing  director  for  the  Pacific  Coast,  came  to  the  res- 
cue with  his  individual  means  and  credit.  A  compromise 
was  made,  the  men  received  a  part  of  their  wages  in  cash 
and  a  part  in  due  bills  indorsed  by  Capt.  Ainsworth,  and 
went  to  work  again.  Uy  great  effort  the  track  was  com- 
pleted to  the  Sound  just  twenty-four  hours  before  the 
time  prescribed  by  Congress  expired. 


TMJ:  CASCADi;   divimon. 

Many  f.uitless  attempts  were  made  by  the  Northern 
Pacific  Company  to  find  a  pass  through  the  Cascade 
Mountains  of  sufficiently  low  altitude  and  eas\'  approach 
to  favor  the  construction  of  a  direct  railroad  line  from 
Eastern  Washington  to  Puget  Sound.  Almost  every 
pass  in  tiie  whole  range  between  the  Columbia  River  and 


428 


N0K77/ERX  PACIFIC  KAIL/WAD. 


the  l^ritish  boundary  that  offered  any  apparent  encour- 
agement to  the  eye  of  an  engineer  was  expU)red,  but  it 
was  not  until  about  a  year  ago  that  one  was  discovered 
where  the  estimated  cost  of  constructing  a  road,  and  of 
operating  it  when  once  built,  was  not  too  great  for  the 
undertaking  to  meet  with  any  favor  from  practical  rail- 
road men.  At  last  the  long-sought  gateway  in  the  lofty 
mountain  wall  was  found  at  the  Stampede  Pass.  A  long 
tunnel  will  be  required  at  the  summit  of  this  Pass  and 
the  approaches  involve  much  difficult  work,  but  the  line 
is  practicable  and  will  be  built. 

The  portion  of  the  Cascade  Division  generally  known 
as  the  Puyallup  Branch,  was  built  in  1876  from  Tacoma  to 
the  VVilkeson  coal  field,  near  the  sources  of  the  Puyallup 
River,  on  the  eastern  base  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  a  dis- 
tance of  thirty  miles,  and  a  short  spur  was  afterward  built 
to  Carbonado,  two  miles  further,  to  reach  a  mine  sold  by  the 
Northern  Pacific  to  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company. 
On  the  eastern  end  of  the  Cascade  Division  construction 
is  in  progress  the  present  season  in  the  valley  of  the 
Yakima,  the  purpose  being  to  build  from  a  connection 
with  the  main  line  near  Ainsworth  up  to  the  eastern 
base  of  the  mountains,  leaving  to  be  built,  at  some  time 
in  the  near  future,  the  connecting  link  across  the  rugged 
range  of  the  Cascades.  The  length  of  this  division,  from 
a  junction  with  the  main  line  3  miles  from  Ainsworth,  to 
Tacoma,  is  240  miles. 

In  this  connection  an  extract  from  a  report  of  the  late 
Chief  Engineer  Roberts  is  of  interest.  The  report  was 
written  on  Puget  Sound  October  3d,  1872,  and  addressed 
to  the  Board  of  Directors.  It  discussed  with  a  thorough- 
ness characteristic  of  its  author  all  the  questions  relating  to 
the  Columbia  River  route  and  the  various  lines  surveyed 
across  the  Cascade  rancre,  and  summed  up  his  opinions 


as 


foil 


ows: 


Independently  of  land    grant    considera- 


cncour- 
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,  and  of 

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A  long 

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the  line 

,'  known 

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ins,  adis- 

ard  built 

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ompany. 

struction 

of  the 

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nsidera- 


COLUMBIA   RIVER  I.IXE  AND  PACIFIC  DIVISIO.XS. 


429 


tions,  and  if  but  one  main  line  should  be  built,  and  the 
Company  should  be  obliged  to  choose  between  the  line 
via  the  Columbia  River,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  route 
over  the  Cascade  Mountains,  on  the  other  hand,  my  pres- 
ent information  would  lead  mc  to  recommend  the  valley 
route,  notwithstanding  its  much  greater  length.  Grant- 
ing that  the  valley  route  may  be  a  hundred  or  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  longer  (depending,  of  course,  upon  what 
point  along  the  Sound  is  to  be  assumed),  the  saving  of 
6,cxx)  feet  of  rise  and  fall  over  the  Skagit  line,  or  4,000 
feet  over  the  Snoqualmie  line,  goes  far  toward  reducing 
the  lines  practically  to  a  par  as  to  length.  Secondly,  the 
vallej'  route  avoids  the  snow  difficulty.  Thirdly,  it  runs 
throughj  or  so  as  to  command  the  business  of  Portland, 
the  commercial  capital  of  0\\  -;on,  and  so  as  to  secure  the 
trade  and  travel  of  the  Willamette  Valley,  the  most  valu- 
able on  the  Pacific  coast.  I'ourthly,  on  the  valley  route 
the  Company  can  start  their  road,  building  350  miles  from 
the  Sound  to  open  it  eastward,  and  running  it  in  con- 
nection with  the  O.  S.  &  X.  Company's  steamers  and 
railroads  along  the  Columbia,  meanwhile  pushing  the 
track  eastward  into  a  region  which  admits  of  settlement." 
Time  has  justified  the  opinions  thus  early  formed  by 
the  great  engineer — opinions  which  led  the  Company  to 
prefer  the  longer  route  to  Pugct  Sound  by  way  of  the 
Columbia  and  the  Cowlitz  valleys  to  the  shorter  one 
across  the  mountains  for  the  main  line  to  be  first  built. 
The  ultimate  completion  of  the  Cascade  Ikanch  is,  how- 
ever, assured  by  the  action  of  the  Company  in  building 
up  to  the  base  of  the  range  on  both  sides.  In  spite  of 
the  great  expense  of  snow-sheds,  heavy  grades,  and  a 
long  tunnel,  the  evident  value  of  a  short  line  from  the 
grain  fields  of  the  interior  to  the  deep  waters  of  the 
Sound  will  induce  the  completion  of  this  branch  at  no 
distant  day. 


II 


430 


■I 


NORTHERN  PAC/F/C  RAILROAD. 


TIIK    SKATTLl!:    KX TENSION. 


The  Seattle  branch  or  extension,  connecting  tlic  town 
of  Seattle  with  the  Cascade  IJranch  of  the  Northern 
Pacific,  and  thence  with  the  main  line  at  its  terminus  at 
Tacoma,  was  built  by  the  Oregon  and  Transcontinental 
Company  in  the  summer  of  1883.  Its  length  is  thirty 
miles,  nine  of  which  is  a  widening  of  the  narrow-gauge 
coal  road  running  from  Seattle  to  Newcastle.  There  are 
four  bridges  and  five  miles  of  piling  across  swamps.  The 
ground  is  heavily  timbered,  and  construction  work  was 
rendered  difficult  by  the  wilderness  character  of  the 
country  and  the  extensive  swamps  traversed  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Stuck,  the  White  and  the  Dwamish  rivers. 
The  junction  with  the  Cascade  Branch  is  made  near  the 
village  of  Puyallup,  ten  miles  cast  of  Tacoma,  and  the 
line,  being  operated  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Company, 
gives  Seattle  the  advantage  of  a  connection  with  its 
general  system,  as  well  as  with  the  Columbia  River,  Port- 
land, Oregon  and  California. 


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CHAPTER    XLVII. 

MD    RENDERED    BY    THE   ARMY. 

Hostility  of  the  Indians  along  the  Northern  Pacific  Line — Warlike  Charac- 
ter of  the  Sioux — Their  Struggle  for  the  Yellowstone  Valley — General 
Sherman's  Opinion  of  the  Railroad  Enterprise — Valuable  Assistance  ren- 
dered by  him  and  his  Subordinate  Ofificers — Important  Military  Move- 
ments— Protection  given  Surveying  Parties  and  Construction  Forces — 
Expeditions  of  1871  and  1S72 — Major  Baker's  Battle  in  the  Yellowstone 
Valley — Major  Forsythe's  Expedition — The  Campaigns  of  iS76and  1877 
against  the  Sioux — Final  Subjection  of  the  Indians — The  Pathway  Cleared 
for  the  Railroad. 

No  historical  account  of  the  Northern  Pacific  enterprise 
would  be  just  or  complete  without  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  very  valuable  services  rendered  by  the  army  of  the 
United  States  in  protecting  the  surveys  and  construction 
of  the  road,  and  in  reducing  to  subjection  the  hostile  In- 
dian tribes  along  its  line,  and  removing  them  to  reserva- 
tions, so  as  to  open  the  country  to  settlement  and  civili- 
zation. When  the  building  of  the  Northern  Pacific  began, 
the  greater  part  of  the  country  through  which  its  line  was 
projected  between  the  Red  River  of  the  North  and  the 
Columbia  River,  was  occupied  as  a  hunting  ground  by 
warlike  tribes  of  savages  that  acknowledged  the  authority 
of  the  Government  only  in  an  intermittent  sort  of  way, 
when  forced  to  do  so  by  defeat  and  hunger.  War  was 
their  trade  and  diversion,  and  they  were  not  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  slight  pretexts  for  breaking  off  peaceable 
relations  with  the  whites.  They  were  intelligent  enough 
to  know  that  the  building  of  a  railroad  across  the  plains, 
where  they  roamed  at  will,  meant  the  destruction  of  the 
buffalo,  on  which  they  depended  mainly  for  food,  the  in- 
flux of  white  settlers,  and  their  own  confinement  to  small 


432 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


AID  RENDERED  BY  THE  ARMY. 


433 


areas  of  territory.  This  knowledge  added  to  their  natural 
combativeness  a  feeling  of  barbarous  patriotism,  which 
urged  them  to  a  stubborn  resistance  to  the  invasion  of  a 
region  which  they  regarded  as  their  own  by  birthright. 
Particularly  was  this  the  case  with  the  numerous  aggrega- 
tion of  bands  and  tribes  called  by  the  general  name  of  the 
Sioux,  that  roamed  over  Dakota  and  a  large  part  of  east- 
ern Montana.  The  Sioux  were  good  fighters,  well  armed, 
possessed  of  some  military  skill,  and  able  to  put  into  the 
field  a  force  of  warriors  larger  than  the  Government  in 
its  hard  struggle  with  them  ever  matched  man  for  man 
with  its  troops. 

Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman,  the  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
army,  having  a  thorough  knowledge  of  all  the  new  coun- 
try of  the  Far  West,  gained  by  long  and  toilsome  journeys 
between  the  two  frontiers — journeys  which  took  him 
through  every  Territory  and  to  nearly  every  military  post 
— was  from  the  first  an  earnest  friend  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  enterprise,  regarding  it  from  both  a  military  and  a 
patriotic  point  of  view  as  an  agency  for  settling  forever 
the  Indian  question  in  the  Northwest,  by  throwing  a  belt 
of  settlement  across  the  chief  hunting  and  fighting  ground 
of  the  savages,  and  by  afifording  the  means  of  moving 
troops  with  rapidity,  and  thus  of  compelling  the  restless 
tribes  to  remain  upon  the  reservations  set  apart  for  them. 
In  his  annual  report  for  1876  he  spoke  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  as  "  the  great  Pacific  Railway,"  and  characterized 
it  as  "  an  enterprise  of  infinite  advantage  to  the  national 
welfare  and  to  civilization."  In  the  spirit  of  this  sentence 
the  veteran  commander  instructed  his  subordinate  officers 
to  furnish  escorts  to  the  surveying  parties  sent  out  by  the 
Company,  and  to  protect  its  engineers  and  laborers  en- 
gaged in  construction  work ;  and  he  directed  the  move- 
ments of  the  troops  engaged  in  operations  against  hostile 
tribes  with  a  view  of  pushing  such  tribes  far  off  the  line 


of  the  projected  road,  which  Jie  knew  would  be  occupied 
by  the  vanguard  of  settlement  as  fast  as  the  locomotive 
moved  forward  into  the  wilderness. 

The  invaluable  aid  thus  afforded  by  the  Commander- 
in-chief  was  seconded  by  Lieutenant-Geaeral  Philip  H. 
Sheridan,  commanding  the  Military  Division  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  by  Major-General  W.  S.  Hancock,  who  was 
in  command  of  the  Department  of  Dakota,  embracing 
northern  Minnesota,  Dakota  and  eastern  Montana,  from 
the  time  when  construction  began   upon  the  Northern 
Pacific   road  until   1878,  and  by  his   successor.  General 
Alfred   H.  Terry.     This  department  was  a  part  of  the 
Lieutenant-General's  military  division.      Major-General 
Irwin  McDowell,  commanding  the  Military  Division  of 
the  Pacific,  and  Brigadier-Generals  E.  O.  C.  Ord,  George 
Crook,  O.  O.  Howard  and  Nelson  H.  Miles,  commanding 
successively  the  Department  of  the  Columbia,  also  ren- 
dered valuable  assistance  to  the  railroad  enterprise  in  the 
territory  west  of  the  Ro'cky  Mountains.     In  the  limits  of 
a  single  brief  chapter  it  is  not  possible  to  fittingly  recog- 
nize the   services  of  the  many  subordinates   of   these 
general  officers,,  who,  at  lonely  military  posts,  on  fatiguing 
scouting  expeditions,  or  in  deadly  combats,  contributed 
to  the  success  of  an   enterprise  which  has  given  toagri- 
culture  and  commerce,  for  peaceful  homes  and  prosperous 
communities,  the  last  domain  of  savages  in  the  United 
States. 

Some  brief  account  of  the  more  important  military 
movements  and  expeditions  undertaken  in  behalf  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  may  properly  be  given  here.  The 
party  sent  out  by  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  from  St.  Paul  in 
1869,  undercharge  of  Governor  Marshall,  of  Minnesota, 
to  make  a  reconnaissance  as  far  as  the  Missouri  River] 
was  furnished  with  an  escort  by  General  HanCock.  The 
party  which  left  the  Pacific  coast  the  same  year  in  charge 


i 


434 


NORTHER.'^  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


of  Chief  Engineer  Roberts,  and  penetrated  as  far  east- 
ward as  the  head  of  the  Yellowstone  Valley,  was  given 
aid  and  protection  by  the  commander  of  Fort  Ellis,  near 
Bozeman,  Montana.     In  his  annual  report  for  1871  Gen- 
eral Hancock  thus  referred  to  two  expeditions  sent  out 
that   year :    "  In    connection    with    that  great  national 
enterprise,  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Riil- 
road,  two  detachments  are  now  in  the  practically  un- 
known and  unexplored  region    lying    between  the  Mis- 
souri River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in    the   general 
direction  of  the  course  of  the  Yellowstone,  in  the  p"o- 
tection  of  surveying  parties  on  the  road  engaged  upon 
a    reconnaissance     to    ascertain    if    a    practicable   route 
therefor  is  to  be  found  from  tie  junction  of  the  Heart 
River  with  the  Missouri,  nearly  due  west  to  the  Yellow- 
stone, near  the  mouth  of  Powder  River,  and  thence  up 
the  Yellowstone  to  a  practicable  pass  in  the  Belt  range 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains."    The  first  of  these  expeditions 
consisted  of  400  men  of  the  20th  and  22d  Infantry,  under 
command   of  Major  J.  N.  G.  Whistler,  escorting  a  well- 
armed  surveying  party.     It  left  Fort  Rice  on  the  9th  of 
September,    reached    the    Powder   River,   and    returned 
without  encountering  hostile  Indians.     The  second  expe- 
dition, under  Captain  Edward  Ball,  of  the  22d  Cavalry, 
was  composed  of  two  companies,  which  left  Fort  Ellis, 
Montana,  September  i6th,  to  escort  the  railroad  engineers 
in  their  examination  of  the  Belt  range  of  mountains,  and 
returned    without    mishap.      Smaller   escorts   were    fur- 
nished   the   same  year  to  the  company's  surveyors  en- 
gaged in   running  lines  between  the  Red  River  and  the 
Missouri.     In    1872  General   Hancock  stationed  a  com- 
pany at  Bismarck  to  protect  the  railroad  stores  and  sup- 
plies,  and    another   at    the  present    site  of  Jamestown, 
Dakota,  where  a  post  called  Fort  Seward  was  established. 
Several   companies  of  the   20th  Infantry  encamped  that 


AID  RENDERED  BY    THE  ARMY. 


435 


summer  along  the  line  of  the  railroad  between  Fargo  and 
Bismarck  to  protect  the  workmen. 

In  his  report  for  1872  Gen.  Hancock  says:  "The  In- 
dians of  the  plains,  through  some  of  their  chiefs,  notified 
us  that  they  intended  to  resist  the  building  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad  west  of  the  Missouri,  and  notwith- 
standing that  threats  of  Indians  are  not  always  followed 
by  attacks,  in  this  case  it  proved  that  they  were  not  en- 
tirely idle,  as  attacks  more  or  less  formidable  were  sub- 
sequently made  by  them  upon  commands  sent  as  escorts 
to  railroad  surveying  parties  during  the  summer  and  fall 
on  the  Missouri  and  along  the  Yellowstone  rivers.  On 
the  29th  of  June  I  received  instructions  from  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Gcneral  to  jDreparc  two  commands  as  escorts  for 
two  surveying  parties  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad, 
one  to  proceed  from  Fort  Rice  on  the  Missouri  River 
about  240  miles  and  return,  the  other  to  start  from  Fort 
Ellis,  Montana,  proceed  to  the  mouth  of  Powder  River, 
310  miles,  and  return  byway  of  the  Musselshell  River." 

A  subsequent  report  gives  an  account  of  these  expedi- 
tions. The  first,  under  command  of  Col.  D.  Stanley,  22d 
Infantry,  was  composed  of  600  infantry.  It  reached 
the  Powder  River  on  the  iSth  of  August,  after  numerous 
skirmishes  with  Indians,  and  then  returned  to  P'ort  Rice. 
The  second  expedition,  commanded  by  Maj.  E.  M.  Baker, 
was  made  up  of  400  men,  of  whom  182  were  cavalry.  It 
left  Fort  Ellis  on  the  27th  of  July,  and  on  the  14th  of 
August  was  attacked  at  the  mouth  of  Pryor's  Creek,  on 
the  Yellowstone,  by  a  large  body  of  Indians.  The  In- 
dians were  repulsed  ;  but  Maj.  Baker  apprehending  an 
assault  by  a  still  more  formidable  force,  only  went  as  far 
as  Pompey's  Pillar,  and  then  crossing  the  plains  to  the 
Musselshell  River  returned  to  Fort  Ellis,  Gen.  Han- 
cock expressed  his  dissatisfaction  at  the  result  of  this 
expedition. 


m 


436 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


AID  RENDERED  BY   THE  ARMY. 


437 


M. 


In  December,  1872,  Gen.  Hancock  was  transferred  to 
another  department,  and  was  succeeded  by  Gen.  Terry. 
In  1873  Gen.  Sheridan,  commanding  the  military  division, 
arranged  with  Capt.  Coulson,  who  owned  a  line  of  steam- 
boats on  the  Missouri,  to  furnish  a  boat  to  ascend  the 
Yellowstone  with  supplies  for  a  depot  to  be  established 
for  the  protection  of  the  Northern  Pacific  surveyors. 
The  command  of  this  expedition  was  given  to  Maj.  George 
A.  Forsythe,  of  Sheridan's  staff.  A  site  near  the  mouth 
of  Glendive  Creek  was  fixed  upon  for  the  new  post,  and 
troops  were  sent  out  to  it  from  Forts  Rice  and  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

During  the  five  years  of  inactivity  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Company  which  followed  the  commer- 
cial crisis  of  1873  occurred  the  last  great  struggle  with 
the  Sioux  tribes,  with  its  terrible  incident  of  the  massacre 
of  General  Custer  and  his  entire  command  of  five  com- 
panies of  cavalry  in  the  battle  of  the  Little  Big  Horn,  in 
1876.  The  war  was  not  ended  until  1877,  when  the 
operations  of  Generals  Crook  and  Miles,  under  the  orders 
of  General  Terry,  were  successful  in  clearing  the  Indians 
out  of  the  Yellowstone  Valley  and  reducing  them  to  sub- 
jection. When  construction  work  was  recommenced  on 
the  Northern  Pacific  line  west  of  the  Missouri  in  1879, 
the  warlike  Sioux  v/crc  established  upon  reservations 
and  peaceably  disposed,  and  the  pathway  of  the  railroad 
was  open  through  to  the  Pacific  slope.  The  Crows,  who 
inhabit  a  large  reservation  in  the  Upper  Yellowstone 
Valley,  were  friendly  to  the  whites,  and  readily  ceded  for 
a  price  the  right  of  way  through  their  reservation.  The 
Flatheads,  through  whose  reservation  in  northwestern 
Montana  the  road  runs,  also  made  reasonable  terms  for 
right  of  way.  The  small  tribes  in  western  Idaho  and 
eastern  Washington  were  well  disposed  during  the  build- 
ing of  the  road,  and  the  military  posts  established  at  Lake 


Coeur  d'Al^ne,  Colville  and  on  the  Spokane  River  afforded 
ample  safeguards  against  any  unexpected  demonstration 
on  their  part.  The  outbreak,  long  retreat  and  final  capt- 
ure of  the  Nez  Perce  Chief  Joseph  and  his  followers  in 
1877,  and  the  brief  campaign  of  the  Bannocks  the  follow- 
ing year,  were  the  final  chapters  in  the  long  history  of 
Indian  wars  in  the  Northwest.  The  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  has  done  what  General  Sherman  predicted  it 
would  do — it  has  settled  the  Indian  question  in  all  the 
States  and  Territories  it  traverses.  When  the  locomotive 
came  the  red  man  knew  that  his  fight  against  civilization 
was  at  an  end. 


THE   END. 


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